


First Hunt

by Icy_Phoenix



Series: Avengers Hunting Series [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supernatural, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Badass Reader, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:07:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 50,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26319925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icy_Phoenix/pseuds/Icy_Phoenix
Summary: Sequel to 'To Hunt...'Now you've done it.They're starting to understand that the world is a much more horrible place than they already thought.Now you just need to prepare them for it.And how to better do that than take them out on their first hunt?
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Reader, Clint Barton & Reader, James "Bucky" Barnes & Reader, Loki (Marvel) & Reader, Natasha Romanov (Marvel) & Reader, Sam Wilson (Marvel) & Reader, Steve Rogers & Reader, Thor (Marvel) & Reader, Tony Stark & Reader
Series: Avengers Hunting Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1912432
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	1. ...with Steve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of the following Chapters start at the End of the First Story of the Series 'To Hunt...' 
> 
> If you haven't read that yet, please do so before starting any of the following Chapters.

A knock on your door woke you late the next morning. You moved to look at your clock. It was nearly 9:30.

“Yes?” you asked while sitting up and combing through your hair with your hands a bit to try and smooth it out a little to look at least somewhat presentable. Natasha walked in with a smile on her face.

“Morning (y/n). I thought you might want to eat some breakfast and get your things. You could help Steve with getting the groceries on the way, it’s his turn this week.”

You nodded and yawned loudly.

“Alright, give me time for a quick shower and I’ll meet him upstairs alright?”

“Alright.”

She left you again and you moved to take a quick shower and dried your hair before dressing and walking to the elevator to take it to the common floor.

“Can this list get any longer? I don’t even know what half of those things are!” you heard Steve complaining. You walked into the kitchen where breakfast was already prepared.

“Something smells delicious…. Good morning guys.”

Clint answers with a greeting of his own before turning back to Steve with a grin on his face.

“Don’t worry Cap, you’ll be able to find everything. Sooner or later.”

“Hey don’t bully Stevie.” You took the list from him. “You guys are mean. Writing down brand names instead of just telling him what you really want.”

Steve blushed slightly at the nickname you gave him.

“Stevie?”

“Well, yes. It’s my nickname for you.”

“Do you have a nickname for everyone?” when you nodded in response he got curious and decided to ask:

“What’s your nickname for Clint?”

“Birdy.”

“I’ve had worse…” he mumbled in the background.

“Natasha?”

“Nat.”

“Then… how about Tony?”

“Playboy.”

“Huh, that really suits him… Bucky?”

“Everyone calls him Bucky so I’ll call him James.”

“Alright… Sam? Bruce? Thor?”

“Soldier, Doc and Big guy. You done with asking?”

“Just a last one: Loki.”

“That… was a bit harder. If I would actually believe in the myths and legends on earth about Loki I would call him manwhore… but since I know that most of them are false I decided on Trickster until I think of something better.”

At this Clint nearly fell of his chair because he was laughing so hard.

“Oh god, I’ll have to tell Tony about that…!” you raised an eyebrow at him as he walked to the middle of the room, jumped up…

and climbed into the vents. …The hell?

“Don’t worry he always climbs into the vents. I sometimes wonder if he has a nest somewhere in there…” Steve reassured you, smiling.

“Alright, if you say so. I’ll just get some breakfast in and afterwards I’ll go shopping with you. The others can get their tattoos while we’re out and you can get yours when we return.”

You got yourself a plate and some of the leftover pancakes before drowning them in syrup.

“You don’t have to go with me. I’ll manage on my own somehow…”

“Oh? Then please tell me… what is that?” You point at a random item on the list and he sighs.

“I’ve got no clue.”

“It’s an energy drink. See? You need help so I’m coming with you. It will be over much faster this way.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.”

“I already told you yesterday, just (y/n) is fine. It makes me feel old when you call me that…”

“Sorry, I’ll try not to forget again.”

“Don’t worry about it Stevie.”

You finish your breakfast and clean up.

“Alright, how far away is the next shop?”

A few minutes later the two of you were standing at the entrance of a supermarket and got a shopping cart each to get everything. Steve had gotten a credit card from Tony to pay for the groceries and you walked down the aisles putting all the things on the list into the carts.

Steve was following quietly and watching you while you identified all the things on the list easily.

“How do you do that?”

“Do what?” you asked him while continuing.

“How do you know what all those things are just by some brand names?”

“I always had to go shopping while I was with Sam and Dean because they could never agree on what to get. While Sam is a fan of healthy food Dean prefers a burger and anything greasy and unhealthy. So they send me because they knew I would get something for everyone.”

“So you were the peacemaker between the two of them?”

“You could call it that.” The two of you continued to walk through the shop for an hour before curiosity got the better of him.

“May I ask why you left then? The way you talk about them it seems like you are quite fond of them.”

You sighed and stopped at the side of one of the last aisles. Luckily there were not many people in the supermarket or you wouldn’t tell Steve the story there.

“Sure you want to hear that? It’s not a very happy story…”

“You… you don’t need to tell me! I’m sorry I shouldn’t have asked…”

“Don’t worry, it’s alright Stevie. It was around the time of the battle in New York, when Loki attacked the city with his alien army. I was in the city for a case and nearly got killed by them. Luckily angel blades are powerful weapons.” You chuckled quietly to yourself before going on. “Sam and Dean told me to go on a few solo hunts when another type of monsters came up. They were called Leviathans. I really don’t know much about them, they managed to keep it all from me. I was on the road alone for a few months before I arrived here. Everything was alright for me until they called me again. My father, Bobby, had been shot in the head during an attack on the Leviathans. By the time I made it back he was already long gone. I found out that he had been working on a car as a gift to me in his free time. I couldn’t look at them after that anymore. I still can’t forgive them for keeping everything from me. If they had told me I would have been there for him and I could have said goodbye and thanked him for everything he did for me…”

“I’m sorry about that… It seems to me like they were just trying to protect you.”

“I know what they were trying to do and it’s not a good excuse. I’m a hunter. I know what I signed up for. I know I could have died there but it was not their decision to make. It was my decision and they took it from me. See? Like I said, not a very happy story. Maybe I’ll be able to forgive them one day, but I’ll never hunt with them again. How can I trust them again if they think that I’m not able to make such decisions myself? If they think me too weak to go against the big beasts?”

“That’s fine. No one is asking you to go back to hunting with them. Believe it or not, I understand. Being the small one is not easy.”

“Yes I know…” you answer before clapping your hands together once. “Alright, enough of the depressing topics and chick-flick moments! We got some shopping to finish.”

Steve chuckles and follows you again.

“Chick-flick moment? I think you’re going to have to explain that one to me.”

“Dean used to say that a lot in the past, picked it up from him I guess… A chick-flick moment is when there is too much emotion in the air. Like in those movies for women where she always gets the guy at the end no matter how bad the odds are.”

“I think I have seen one or two of those…”

“You have my sympathy then. I always preferred action or horror movies.”

Almost another hour later the two of you had finally paid and there were 8 full shopping bags to carry.

“Huh, maybe we should have taken the car…” you said quietly more to yourself than to Steve while taking two of them and moving to carry two more.

“You don’t need to carry that much, I can do it.” He began hanging the shopping bags on his arms and you had to admit that it looked kind of funny.

“Don’t worry about it. I know you’re a gentleman and all that but you don’t need to waste that on me, I’m no Lady.” You quickly added two more bags to the two you were already carrying and moved outside. While they were heavy you’ve had worse before. Steve took the rest of the bags and hurried to catch up with you.

“I know women are a lot more independent these days than what I’m used to but that’s just nonsense. Every woman has a Lady somewhere inside of her. Sometimes it just takes a while and the right guy to find it.” You had to laugh at that.

“You’re real precious you know that? There are way too many assholes out there, it’s nice to know that there are some good guys after all. Thanks.”

You gave him a smile which he returned with his own bright one. The two of you carried the groceries back fast to prevent the ice-cream you had bought from melting.

As soon as you both stepped into the kitchen of the common floor you were already greeted by Clint again who looked at his watch for a moment.

“2 ½ hours. That’s a record for you, Cap. You should get into the sitting room, the tattoo artist is waiting for you.”

You sat down your bags while Steve did the same.

“I’ll go when I’m done here.”

“Just go Stevie, Birdy can help me putting those away.” The sentence earned you a groan from Clint but you ignored it since he decided to move and help you anyway.

“Alright… Thanks for going shopping with me (y/n).”

“You’re welcome!”

With Clint’s help you were done with putting away the groceries only a few minutes later. You took a look at your watch and decided that it was time to get your things. At least you would be able to take your car since it was way past rush hour.

“Lady (y/n)! We have gotten those permanent pictures on our skin now! That means we will be permitted to go hunting with you now, right?” Thor's voice boomed through the kitchen where he joined you and Clint.

“Yes that’s right but I still have to get some research in before I can tell you who I’ll be taking with me... Oh and there were only Pop-Tarts on the list not what flavor you wanted so we got you some of everything.” The smile on his features nearly split his face as he moved to hug you, lifting you off the ground easily.

“Thank you!”

“You’re… welcome…! Can’t… breathe…!”

“Oh I’m sorry Lady (y/n).” he apologized while he sat you down onto the ground again. “I hope I did not hurt you…”

“Don’t worry about it, big guy. I’m alright. I need to go and get my stuff and afterwards I’ll tell you guys more about the case, alright?”

“I’m looking forward to hearing about more of those Midgardian creatures that you hunt!”

“I’ll tell you more stories after this is done. Need to go, see you later.”

The drive to the hotel and back was luckily a fast one. As soon as you got back to the tower J.A.R.V.I.S. notified you that the floor beneath Natasha’s had been prepared for your use.

You thanked him and brought your stuff to the floor before taking the file and moving back to the common floor where most of them were sitting and waiting for you.

“Where are the others?” you ask curiously.

“Bruce is in his lab working. Tony is working on his suits and totally not crying because getting that tattoo hurt and Nat and I got a new mission and we will be away for a few days. I’m actually only here to tell you that, so see you when I get back.” Clint was clearly not happy that he had to leave now, after all he still wanted to get that story out of you, but a mission was more important.

“Alright, have fun Birdy. I’ll keep my promise when you get back don’t worry.” That seemed to lift his mood somewhat. After a short goodbye he left you alone with the rest.

“So, what is it you’re going after?” By now the curiosity had gotten to Sam and the rest of them looked quite interested in it as well.

“To tell the truth… I don’t really know yet. It could be a few things right now. The information Nick gave me is about teenage girls going missing in Brooklyn for a month now. Yesterday was the first time that one of them showed up again and it was not a pretty sight.” You took out some pictures from the file. “I hope nobody got a nervous stomach.” You added before putting them onto the table in front of you. They were pictures of the 17-year old who had been found in an alley. Most of her upper body was missing and it looked like she had been eaten by something with sharp fangs.

Steve took a sharp intake of breath at the view.

“What kind of monster does something like that…?”

“For now my money is on Skinwalkers… But it’s unusual that the other victims are still missing… It could also be werewolves.”

“According to the book you gave me yesterday those creatures only turn in the night of the full moon.” Loki added.

“I know but there are also purebloods. Pureblood werewolves can turn themselves whenever they want and retain their human sides when they turn… Wait, I’m explaining this the wrong way, let’s start over: Werewolves are humans who have been infected with lycanthropy. The regular ones turn on the night of the full moon and feed on human hearts. Sometimes they eat more than that but they never leave the heart. They can also have children who will be born as werewolves as well. Normal ones go into full animalistic mode when they turn and don’t remember anything afterwards. Purebloods on the other hand have full control over when they turn and have the ability to control their hunger. They can feed on animal hearts but most either don’t want to control themselves or can’t.” You put the pictures back into the file while you talk. “They got the usual powers: highly enhanced strength, agility, speed, stamina, senses and can only be hurt by silver. The normal ones have all those powers only when they turn while the purebloods sometimes retain their powers while in human form. They can also infect anyone they bite with lycanthropy and from what I know there is no cure. Once you’ve been  
bitten you’re one of them.”

You noticed that Sam was shifting around a bit, clearly uncomfortable. “Don’t worry Sam, I’m not taking you with me.” He released a sigh of relieve at that.

“Thank god, I was almost worried. Who will you be taking with you by the way? And you mentioned something named a Skinwalker?”

“I don’t know yet. If my assumption is correct and it’s either of those I’m not taking anyone. I can’t risk one of you getting turned on your first hunt.” You could clearly see that neither Thor nor Steve were very happy with the statement but decided to ignore them for now and go on. “Skinwalkers are some kind of cousins to werewolves. They have the same powers and weaknesses and turn someone with a bite. The difference is that Skinwalkers can Shape-shift into dogs. Normal everyday dogs. And that is exactly my problem. I don’t know yet how to find them. The only thing I know is that they are picky eaters and hunt in Brooklyn. Not very much to go by…”

“That sounds like a serious problem… Did the victims have anything in common?”

“That’s what I’m going to have to find out now. I’ll be going to their schools and parents this afternoon. I hope none of them have dogs.” You added as a joke.

“So… any dog in Brooklyn could be responsible for that?”

“Yeah and unless they shift I won’t be able to tell… I can’t just cut any dog I come across with a silver knife that would be too weird. Oh I forgot. They have one more thing in common with Werewolves: they usually live in packs.”

After explaining you stood up with the file in hand.

“Okay, I think I need to leave now if I want to check every school today and the parents. There has to be something that they had in common and I will not stop until I find it.”

“If you don’t mind I would like to go with you.”

“I don’t mind Stevie, but why would you want to come with me? It’s going to be desperate and grieving families, that’s not how someone should spend their afternoon by choice.”

“I just don’t like the thought that you’re going alone…”

“Well, thanks Stevie. That could actually make the job a lot easier.”

“How so?” he asked you, clearly confused.

“According to my experience people tell a lot more to someone that they like and you are Captain America. We will not have to waste any time to get them talking. I just need to change and then we can leave.”

“Alright, I’ll wait downstairs for you.”

You changed into the clothes that you had dubbed your FBI disguise and went down to meet Steve. He was waiting at your car for you.

“Just so you know, this will be a nerve-wracking afternoon. Last chance to back out.”

“I can handle it, don’t worry.”

“Alright. Just one more thing: Please don’t promise them anything. Those people are looking for their children and new hope that gets destroyed soon after is sometimes worse than anything else.”

“Got it. No promises. Where are we going first?”

It took you some really nerve-wracking hours to talk to all of the families and thanks to Steve everything went off without a hitch. He was really great with the parents and even managed to keep his word with you.

“Okay… from what we’ve gathered they were all the same type of girl: introverted and not many friends. That can’t be a coincidence. There has to be something that ties them together, that got the culprit the chance to get them…” You had started mumbling to yourself while driving to the first school. According to the parents all of them had been at home a lot. While most of them had visited the same school some of them were students at another. There were no cafés or shops that they went to frequently. It was starting to drive you insane.

“Don’t worry. Whatever it is, we’ll find it. Maybe we should talk with the best friends. Most people tell their best friends everything.”

You nodded. He was right of course. A deep breath calmed you down as you stopped at the first school.

Going to the schools had been a real waste of time. The only thing you had found out was that all of the missing girls had at one time or another been bullied. Something you could have found out by talking to the best friends first. At least you had their addresses.

You had to admit that you were a little frustrated with the progress of the case until now. There had to be something, you were sure of that, you just seemed to be too blind to see it.

Steve did a great job with calming you down when you got too frustrated and before you talked to anyone. The two of you had to stop for dinner before visiting the friends because both of you were famished.

Talking to the best friends got you no better results, until you got to the last one.

“She was always on this chatroom… She told me that she wanted to meet someone.” The girl had told you this while crying her eyes out. She was the friend of the newest victim who had been taken just the day before. You had heard a few times about a chatroom but none of them could tell you a link or username or anything until now.

“Maybe that’s what we were looking for. Whatever a chatroom is…” Steve thought out loud as the two of you walked back to your car after talking to the girl.

“A chatroom is a place on the internet where people can come together to communicate with each other. There are thousands of those online. Luckily she wrote the link and her friend’s username down for us. Now we’re going back to the tower and see if one of the others can help us because I’m not good enough to hack a chatroom. Maybe Tony can help us.”

Asking Tony was really the only thing you could do since Natasha was not available right now. You walked to Tony’s lab where he was currently according to J.A.R.V.I.S.

“Mind helping us out a little playboy?” You asked while you walked into his lab.

“Anything for you babe. What do you need?” He turned around on his chair to face you and Steve who was still following you. You laid down paper with the link and username of the victim in front of him.

“We need you to hack into this chatroom and get us anything you can regarding this user. She was taken yesterday and her friend told us she wanted to meet someone from the chatroom. We need to know who it is.” He looked at you as if he questioned your sanity.

“You… are asking me to hack into a chatroom?”

“Yes I am.”

“You’re asking me: Tony Stark to hack into a chatroom?” he repeated slowly.

“Yes I am! What’s going on with you? Can’t do it?”

“That’s like asking Picasso to color by numbers! How could you ask me to hack a chatroom?!” he shouted at you so you decided to shout back.

“I would have asked someone else if I could! Now will you do it or not?! We’re trying to find those girls!” That actually got him to shut up and just do it. Within a minute you could see everything you wanted.

“There, that’s the one! Can you show me his chat history?”

“Of course I can, who do you think you’re talking to?”

“Let me rephrase that: Show me his chat history before I kick your ass for wasting time!” Steve tried to calm you down again while Tony opened the chat history of your suspect.

“There it is. From what I can see more than one girl decided to meet with them. Information is false, logged in from an Internet Café in Brooklyn. That’s all I can tell you about them. But it seems like there is another meeting scheduled… Today at 10 in the evening in Brooklyn Park.”

You took a quick look onto your watch before cursing loudly.

“That’s in an hour! I have to go! Thanks playboy!” you shouted while leaving the room and running to the elevator. You didn’t even notice that Steve was still following you until he got into the elevator with you.

“What are you doing? I told you I can’t take anyone, it’s too dangerous!” you get out on your floor and hurry to your room to change while Steve waits next to the elevator until you get back.

“That’s not your decision to make, it’s mine. We have to save those girls and I’ll be fine, I got my shield to protect me.” He got back into the elevator with you after you had changed into comfortable jeans and a shirt with a leather jacket and sneakers. You also had gotten the bag with weapons to take with you.

“Alright, but only on one condition: While we’re doing this you do what I tell you when I tell you. I don’t care that you’re Captain America. On this hunt you follow my lead, got it?” You really didn’t expect what happened next though: he saluted.

“Yes, Ma’am!”

You were silent for a moment and stared at him, trying to contain your laughter at the view of him blushing after he realized what he just did out of habit.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to do that…” His quiet apology was all it took to have you laughing your head off.

“Don’t worry about it Stevie. Go get your shield and let’s safe those girls. I’ll be waiting by the car, I promise.” He nodded in response and hurried to get his shield while you made your way to your car and to the trunk. You sorted out what you needed, which wasn’t really much. Just a silver knife and a revolver, loaded with silver bullets. Sadly you only had one of each as they were not really the cheapest things in your arsenal.

You waited for Steve before giving the revolver to him and hiding the knife in your jacket.

“It’s loaded with silver bullets, that way you can stay a bit farther away.” You got into the car before he could protest and started driving as soon as he joined you.

“That doesn’t make sense. Like I said, I have my shield to protect me, you have nothing else. You should take the revolver and I’ll take the knife.” The way he looked at you, you knew that he wouldn’t let this go until you accepted the trade.

“Alright we’ll trade when we get there. Happy?” He nodded in response as you rushed through the traffic to your destination where you swapped your weapons. The two of you got there with only 10 minutes to spare and only a description of where they were going to meet.

“Follow me.” Steve whispered to you, following a way with purpose.

“You know your way around?”

“I’ve been here a few times since I got out of the ice. I was born in Brooklyn.”

You managed to find the girl and hid just in time. Steve was not happy with the plan but you knew that you would have to follow the suspect after he kidnapped the girl. There was no other way to find the pack because a pack member would not give up the location.

You waited for a few minutes just watching the girl sitting on a bench until a man walked over to her. You were not too far away so that you could see her and the man clearly but something was amiss. Your gut feeling told you that this was wrong and when you saw the claws on his hands a sliver of doubt made his way into your mind. Something was wrong but you couldn’t quite put a finger on it.

After the man had knocked the girl out and thrown her over his shoulder he started to leave. You stopped Steve from instantly going after him and only moved when he was a bit farther away.

The lurking doubt morphed into certainty the second you saw the man vanishing into the sewers.

Steve moved to follow him but you stopped him again.

“Don’t. We don’t have the right weapons. Give me a second.” He looked at you as if you had lost your mind but followed your order even though he didn’t like it.

You had to shoot off a quick prayer to Castiel before opening your eyes again and looking at Steve who was frowning.

“I was wrong. It wasn’t about the hearts… It’s about virgins Stevie. Female virgins. I hope you are ready to face resistance because we’re going after dragons here. They are so rare that I didn’t even think about them…” He clearly wanted to ask you something was interrupted by the flutter of wings.

“Is it bad? Do you require more help? Sam and Dean need me right now but I could try and send someone else to help you.” Castiel asks while handing you a broken sword.

“Thanks Cas. We’ll manage. Go and help them, I’ll call you if we need backup.” You hugged the angel before moving away again. He looked at Steve for a moment but nodded and left again.

“What… what was that? Who was that? What’s with the sword?” It seemed like Steve had found his voice again after Castiel’s appearance had shocked him into silence.

“That was Castiel. He’s an angel and he just brought me the only weapon I can think of that can kill a dragon.” You explained while the two of you moved into the sewers. “It’s called the Sword of Bruncvik. It’s a sword forged in Dragon’s blood. There are about 5 or 6 of them left on earth…” Steve followed you into the sewer system, stunned into silence again. “Their powers are a bit different. They got the usual super strength and speed but they can also use something we call ‘Dragon Claw’. They can generate heat with their hands with which they can easily melt iron and incinerate humans. I hope your shield can take that.”

“It can.”

“They also live in groups. I hope we don’t find too many…”

“I’ll keep them off of you for as long as I can while you try to get rid of one after the other, alright?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

The both of you crept around the sewers for quite a while until you could see light up ahead. You decided to go first, in case that you managed to surprise one of them while Steve followed you as silently as possible.

You stopped at the corner to peek around and saw the man who kidnapped the girl earlier. You could also hear whimpers up ahead. His back was turned to you so you took the opportunity to stab him into the back and kill him. Steve was right next to you and caught the dead dragon to move him onto the floor silently.

You sneaked ahead and managed to take a look at a barred room where a few girls still sat, cowered together and crying in fear. With a silent whisper you got their attention.

“Can you tell me how many there are?”

“I’ve seen 4…” one of them whispered back to you.

“Alright, we’ll come and get you as soon as possible, hang on a little longer.” They nod and tried to keep silent, most of them had stopped crying, a look of hope on their faces as Steve stepped into their line of sight and they saw his shield.

“There are at least 3 more.” You whispered to him before you sneaked forward. Hopefully the three of them were not together or near their hoard. If you could get them alone like the first one this could be a really easy thing.

Of course thinking about that had jinxed it. Only a few minutes later you were standing near the hoard and fighting for your life.

There had been 4 more, not 3 like you had thought and while Steve fought 3 of them, keeping them of your back you had yet to kill the first. Thanks to the broken sword you would have to get really close to him but he kept you back with his glowing red claws.

You had no choice but to risk it. After feigning a stumble you attacked. The Dragon who saw you stumble came in for an attack with his claws but before they could connect with you he was pierced into the side by the sword. As soon as the monster attacked you had crouched and stabbed the blade forward, connecting with his body.

He fell to the ground and you whirled around to help Steve.

It seemed to be a real piece of work but he managed to keep them at bay by hitting them with his shield from time to time. When he managed to hit one of them right in the face you saw your chance to attack the stunned target.

He never saw the blow coming but soon the blade was buried in his chest. With a hard tug the weapon was free again and you were down to only two dragons.

They looked like they were going to flee but they had their back to their hoard and the walls. They could not get past Steve and to try on your side would be to run into the blade.

Without the option to flee they started to fight again. One of them attacked Steve head on while the other charged at you. You succeeded with getting out of the way just in time but you swore as your back hit the wall. The dragon grinned at your predicament and attacked you again with his hot claws.

In desperation you swung the broken blade in front of you and you successfully severed some of his fingers. You took the opportunity when he recoiled and screamed in pain and swung again, cutting through his stomach and splattering yourself with blood.

Now there was only one of them left and he was having some problems fighting Steve, after all Steve was trained to fight while his enemy was not. While his full attention was on the man he was fighting you maneuvered yourself behind him and stabbed him in the back.

When your enemy fell face first onto the ground you didn’t have the strength left to tug the sword out of him so you followed him to the floor.

“(y/n)!” Steve was worried for you, he saw the blood of one of the dragons on you and didn’t know if any of it was your own.

“Don’t worry Stevie. I’m alright.” You breathed heavily while turning around and lying on the ground instead of a dead dragon.

“Oh thank god, you had me worried there for a moment.”

“Just exhausted.” You mumbled quietly in response. But you couldn’t rest yet. Your job wasn’t done after all.  
After Steve helped you up you pulled the sword free and wiped it on the dragon’s clothes.

“Let’s get the girls out of here.” You took a last look at the hoard before leaving in the direction of the cell. “I really hope Nick lets me keep some of that.” You joked, making Steve laugh.

“Yeah… I don’t think so.” The both of you moved back to the cell where you smiled at the 3 cowering girls while Steve opened the door by breaking the lock off.

“They’re gone, you can come out now.”

The three girls rush to you and Steve and one of them clings to you while Steve gets the other two, crying in relief.

“Do you know what happened to the others?” you asked the girl clinging to you while rubbing her back in a soothing motion.

“They took them away. They didn’t come back…”

“Hey it’s alright. We’re going to bring you home now alright?” They all nodded happily wanting to see their families.

“You’re going to have to promise me something.” You started while you make your way to your car. “Promise me that you’ll try and forget about this. I’m sorry that you had to go through this but you’re safe now and S.H.I.E.L.D. will take care of the rest, alright?” You gave them an encouraging smile while you took out your phone and send a message to Nick about the cleanup and that you would take the girls home.

An hour, three teary family reunions and a lot more thanks than you had ever gotten before you were about ready to collapse right where you were standing.

By now you had finally noticed that one of them had managed to scorch some of your hair and there were a few burn marks on your clothes while Steve looked like nothing had happened.

As soon as you stepped into the elevator J.A.R.V.I.S. informed you that the guys wanted to see the two of you on your return and get the story so he changed the exit from your floor, where you really wanted to go and get a shower, to the common floor where the guys were sitting and watching movies.

Bruce nearly dropped his soda when he saw you.

“Are you alright?”

“Don’t worry Doc, I’ll live.”

“So… how were the Werewolves? Or was it Skinwalkers?” Tony asked you. It seemed like either the others had told him or he had asked J.A.R.V.I.S. about it.

“Neither. They wouldn’t have burned me would they?” you ask with a slightly bad mood crawling up to you. After all they were keeping you from a shower and collapsing into your bed.

“What was it then? And what’s up with the sword?” Tony had paused the movie by now and everyone’s attention was on you.

“If I tell you, will you let me go and have a shower and sleep?” You only continued after he had nodded in response. “This is the Sword of Bruncvik. The sword was forged in Dragons blood and is the only thing that can kill a Dragon. Which was the monster by the way. They were abducting virgins. Now I’m going to have a shower and if anyone tries to stop me we’ll see it this can be used on humans just as well!” You added while raising the sword a little and leaving for the elevator.

The guys were all gaping at Steve by now and you were sure that he wouldn’t get away without telling the whole story.

“So it was Dragons… Wait, what?!!”


	2. ...with Tony

You were awoken the next morning by J.A.R.V.I.S. voice in your room.

“Director Fury would like to speak with you Miss (y/n).”

You groan silently but move to get up.

“Thanks J.A.R.V.I.S. Please tell him I’ll be there as soon as I had a shower.”

“Of course Miss (y/n).”

Luckily he had not woken you up too early. It was already 9, meaning you had slept in a bit. After taking your shower you dressed and went down the hall to the elevator.

Natasha’s door was open and her room empty. She must have already left for the gym or something.

You made your way into the elevator and followed the route Maria had showed to you yesterday to Fury’s office. Your hand was already rising to knock when you heard him calling you inside.

You opened the door and closed it behind you instantly when you saw the deep frown on his face.

“What is it?” you ask him with a serious look on your face. You sit down before he can answer.

“About the file I gave you yesterday… It may be worse than I thought. An undercover agent just called me. I told him to be on the lookout for Sulfur…”

“You told him that and he didn’t ask why?”

“I told him that it was important, that’s all he needed to know. He’s been with S.H.I.E.L.D. for a long time now, he knows how things are handled. Anyway there have been more traces at the suspect’s house. He will also be hosting a large party so I suggest you get a nice dress.”

“A dress? Please tell me you’re kidding me. I can’t hunt in a dress. I don’t even have the funds to get a dress for a fancy event. I belong on the streets not there… The people will notice that.”

“Then I suggest you get a few pointers by Agent Romanoff. She will be able to help you. S.H.I.E.L.D. will also be paying for your dress so go shopping with her.”

He hands you a new file and a credit card before continuing to work through the paperwork in front of him. Of course you know that means that you are being dismissed, so you tuck the file under your arm and leave.

You sigh as you get back to the elevator and take a look at the file. Level 9. Well fuck. That meant that the information inside were on a strict need-to-know basis.

Still you had to get Natasha’s help so you would have to tell her. You walked into the common room while reading the file. Nick had been right, it was a lot worse than you thought.

“Morning babe.”

You looked up at him as you were greeted by the one and only Tony Stark, nursing a drink.

“Morning playboy.”

“Oh is that my new nickname? I like it.”

His attention wanders to the folder in your hand more precisely to the front where he can see the labels of ‘Classified’ and ‘Level 9’.

“You are level 9?” you raise an eyebrow at the dumb question. Would you be going around reading a level 9 file if you were not? In the Avengers tower of all place? Not very likely.

“You are not?” you shoot back at him.

“Okay, got it. Not my most intelligent question of the day. You want a drink as well?” he asks as he moves to get himself a new one.

“Before breakfast? Count me in.”

He prepares a drink for himself and slips one over to you.

“So what’s the file about?”

“You’re not level 9 so why should I tell you?”

“I could just hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s database and find out myself but you could save me precious time by just telling me.” He grins confidently at you.

“While that is true I need to talk about it with Natasha first… And go shopping. I guess I’ll tell you about it later.” You finish your drink fast before grabbing the file. “The tattoo artist will be here while I’m out with Natasha, Maria has the symbol. J.A.R.V.I.S.? Mind telling me where I can find Natasha?”

“Miss Romanoff is currently in the gym with Mister Barton.”

“Thanks J.A.R.V.I.S.”

“You’re welcome Miss (y/n).”

“See you later playboy.” You say while taking your leave again. “And thanks for the drink!”

Thanks to J.A.R.V.I.S. directions you manage to find the gym only a few minutes later. It’s a lot bigger than you thought and in the middle of it there is a boxing ring where Clint and Natasha are currently sparring. You sit down at the sideline and decide to wait for them to finish. In the meantime you study the file again until you notice Natasha and Clint coming up to you.

“What are you doing here?”

They notice the file in your hands and sit down next to you.

“Do you need help with that?”

Of course they noticed the labels so in contrast to Tony they decide not to ask too much.

“I could actually use your help Nat. Mind going out with me for a bit? I’ll tell you everything on the way.”

Clint nods before leaving you alone with Natasha.

“We have enough time for you to take a shower. I’ll meet you down at the car afterwards, okay?”

She nods before leaving. You stand up and walk down to your car were you take a bottle out of your trunk and wait for her.

As soon as she joins you in the car 15 minutes later you hand her the bottle.

“You need to drink some.”

She raises her eyebrow but does as you want. She takes the bottle from you and takes a gulp before giving it back.

“Now I guess that was holy water, mind telling me what’s going on?”

“Just a security check. If you had been possessed that would have hurt like a bitch and I could have exorcised the demon. The file you saw earlier… Some people high up the food chain have been taken over by demons and I need to take care of it.”

You take out the credit card that Nick gave you before.

“Nick told me to buy a dress to go there and ask you for help with it. I never really wore a dress and I don’t know shit about make-up, so I might need a lot of help…”

She smiles at you reassuringly.

“Don’t worry we’ll get you everything you need. I’ll help you with your make-up and hair before you go there and try to teach you the basics. It’s not really hard. It would be easier if you take back-up though… Someone who is used to the crowd.”

“I’ll think about that later, right now we need to get this done.”

Nearly 4 hours later you were exhausted, but you had finally managed to find a fitting dress which would allow you to hide your weapons underneath and which allowed enough room for movement, should you have to fight. You also succeeded in finding matching shoes with wide heels so that you would not break your legs if you had to fight in them.

Natasha would borrow you a necklace and matching earrings for the party. She also took the time while the two of you were shopping to give you some pointers about how to behave at the party.

As soon as you were done shopping you drove back to the tower. You thanked Natasha and told her that the party would be the next evening. You took your bags out of the trunk which you had collected on your way to the hotel and followed her inside. The instant the two of you made your way into the common room to ask Tony were you could put your things you were greeted by him, Clint and Steve. They looked pretty serious.

“How much did you find out?” you ask with a look at Tony.

“Nothing but I know that there is something going on that you are not telling us. Fury made sure that there is absolutely nothing I could hack into so it has to be serious. I hope you’re planning to tell us.”

“Did you all get your tattoos?” you ask while you get out the bottle again. You unscrew it before splashing them all with a bit of holy water into the face.

“What. The. Fuck?” Tony looks at you as if you had lost your mind.

“Guys this is serious and I had to be sure that no one of you is possessed. We have to do this somewhere where we can’t be overheard and no one can ‘walk in accidentally’.”

“We’re going to my lab.”

For once Tony seems to be serious and everyone follows him as soon as he picks up his glass and leaves.

The walk to the lab is completely silent and as soon as you are inside, everyone’s eyes are back on you.

“Before we start this you have to promise me not to tell anybody. I think I’m going to have to do this alone, everything else could be too dangerous. If one of you shows up that could be a warning sign to them that we cannot afford to give.”

They nod at you before all of you sit down on different surfaces. You choose Tony’s working desk to make yourself comfortable after sitting down your bags next to you.

“Why were you out with Natasha?” Tony had to ask before you could explain anything.

“There is something going down and the best way for me to check it out is a damn high-class party so I needed to get a dress. Like I told you before, we were out shopping. Now let me explain.” You manage to shut him up as soon as he opens his mouth to ask anything else.

You take a deep breath before dropping the bomb on them.

“It’s demons. I can’t just kill them because they are public figures and they would be missed. Nick called me to his office today to tell me that an undercover agent of his called him to tell him that he has found traces of sulfur at his current employers place. Sulfur usually means for a hunter that there is a demon around who is using his powers. There have been signs of more than one demon and the employer of the agent was… “You look at Tony before finishing.

“…his name is Charles Healey, CEO of AccuTech subsidiary to Stark Industries.”

The second those words leave your mouth you hear the sound of the glass shattering in Tony’s hand.

“It seems that the demons are trying to get influence within Stark Industries before taking Tony out and having the company produce weapons again.”

“Those damn bastards.” You hear the billionaire mutter while you move to take a look at his hand. Luckily not much of the glass had penetrated his skin and there were only a few cuts. You gather up your bags to take them with you.

“Come on playboy, I’ll clean those for you.”

Natasha gives you a nod as you pass her with Tony and stops the others from following you.

“How could this happen?” he mumbles apparently more to himself than you.

“You don’t notice things like that unless you know what to look for. Don’t even start telling yourself that you should have noticed. Demons are masters of manipulation you wouldn’t have found anything even if you noticed that they were behaving odd or something like that.”

You go with him to the elevator. 

“I had a floor prepared for you. You can set down your things there. I’ll need a stronger drink.”

“Don’t worry about it too much Tony, I’ll do everything I can to weed them out. I just need to identify them and see how many there are.”

The elevator stops at your floor and you set down your things before rejoining Tony in the elevator. The two of you continued on to his penthouse.

“There’s a first-aid kit in the bathroom over there.”

You nod and move to get it before following him to the bar. He is already nursing a drink again. You both stay silent while you take care of his hand and wrap it afterwards to keep the wounds clean.

“All done.”

You set the box aside and sit down next to him at the bar.

“What do you plan to do when you find them? How are you going to find them? And what will happen to the people they possessed?”

“That actually depends on the situation. If I can’t trap and exorcise them I will need to kill them. I have everything I need for that so don’t worry about that. I will find them by using these.”

You take two rings out of your pocket.

“They are pure iron. Demons can’t touch it without having their skin burned, especially the lower ones. I just need to shake a lot of hands… What happens to the meatsuit as demons call them depends on how long the demon was inside them and what happened to them in the meantime. If everything goes according to the plan they will wake up and don’t remember anything that happened while they were possessed. But if the meatsuit got a fatal wound while possessed they will die as soon as the demon leaves.”

He takes one of the rings from you and slips it onto his little finger, the only finger where it fits.

“I’ll go with you.”

You stare at him for a second before shaking your head.

“You can’t! I can’t take an Avenger with me, it could warn them!”

“You can’t take an Avenger, which means Iron Man can’t join in. But nobody says you can’t take Tony Stark, owner of Stark Industries. I usually don’t go to things like that so everybody will want to shake my hand and you can have a better lookout. And don’t even try to say no Sunshine, I’m going whether you like it or not.”

You sigh and think about it for a second. Everything he said was true and every hunt had a certain danger to it.

“Alright, you can help.”

“Guess it’s a date than babe.” He grins cheekily.

“Wait, who said anything about a date?”

“We will be going to a nice party, where could you have a better vantage point while I shake hands than on my arm?”

You stay silent for almost a full minute while you stare at him and he continues to grin at you.

“Damn, you’re right again. Alright, I’ll be your date for the party, but only because of the hunt understood? Now give me one of those too.”

“Of course, only for the hunt.” He fills up a glass for you and the both of you drink in companionable silence until it is interrupted by a heavy British accent.

“Hello love.” You sigh before answering.

“Hello Crowley, to what do I owe the pleasure of meeting you today?” Tony jumped up in shock at the unexpected voice in his room.

“J.A.R.V.I.S. how the hell did he get in here?”

“It appears that he has the ability to teleport sir.”

“How rude of you darling, shouldn’t you introduce us?” Crowley looks at you, still standing a few feet away from you.

“Of course, where are my manners? Crowley, Tony Stark. Tony, Crowley current King of Hell.”

“King of Hell?!”

“Please Tony sit down. As much as I would like to kill him myself sometimes, he at least keeps his demons under control.” Tony decides to listen to you and sit down but he continues to keep his eyes on the newcomer. You press a finger to your mouth to signal him to keep quiet while looking at him. He nods reluctantly and watches the two of you.

“Don’t bother calling for the suit, couldn’t kill me anyway.”

“Crowley. How did you find me this time? I thought I hid well enough.”

"Never underestimate the King of Hell, darling. I know a lot of swell tricks." He answers you while sitting down next to you.

“Of course you do. How’s Juliet?”

“Growing like a weed, must be the food. Now as much as I like having a chat with you love, my issue with you is a little more businesslike.”

“Meaning that you need a favor? Or do you have information for me? That or you are trying to get me to strike a deal again. I told you last time, it’s not working.”

“Actually I have a little problem that you could resolve for me. Moose and Squirrel are currently occupied.”

“So a favor it is. What kind of favor are we talking about?”

“Some rats decided to take off with a few of my souls. I want them gone and the souls returned to me.”

“Well that would call for a favor in return right? Don’t you think I earned a little something by helping you out?”

Crowley gives you a grin before going on.

“Are you trying to negotiate with me? That’s my girl! What do you want? Riches? The apple pie live? Happily ever after? You know the rules.”

“I don’t want any of that and you know that. I’m not striking a deal with you.”

“Well what do you want then darling? As you may recall: patience isn't one of my virtues...well, I don't have any virtues... but if I did I'm sure patience wouldn't be one of them."

“You give me the details, I’ll take care of your little problem for you and I get a nice little IOU from you. You’ll just even the score when I need your help the next time.”

“Of course. Should I get the paperwork done?”

“Nope.” You take another mouthful of your drink. “Paperwork would mean it’s an official deal and like I told you the last time, I’m not kissing you.”

“Aw come on, show papa some love darling.”

“I know that you honor your deals, even if it’s just a favor so there is no need for that.”

“You’re lucky that I enjoy your company from time to time. Much better than those denim wrapped nightmares. Alright. There are a former crossroad demon and 4 minor players on the run from me.”

“Why don’t you just sick Juliet on them?”

“I can’t have my pup ruining her appetite with rubbish like them. They also may have taken a hellhound with them.”

“So you want me to take care of that as well? You know they are almost impossible to kill for a hunter. You better make that a major IOU.”

“Whatever you want darling.” He takes a list of names out of his suit and puts it down in front of you. “I got you the names of the meatsuits.”

“Why do you need my help with this? Wouldn’t it be much easier to just do it yourself?”

“I’m a very busy man love. So the favor is the following: You exorcise them and get me my souls.”

“There have to be a lot of souls if you’re willing to have an IOU to me on your plate.” After a look onto the list you nod. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Now that that is done I’ll be taking my leave. I’ll be waiting for those betraying bastards in hell. Maybe I’ll even clean up the torture-chamber for their arrival.” With those words he teleported out of the room and a long relieved sigh left your mouth. Tony who had been silent the whole time looked at you, waiting for an explanation.

“Thank you for keeping your mouth shut, I know it’s not an easy thing for you.” You joke before downing your drink.

“Usually I’m all up for jokes but right now I would prefer an explanation.”

“Well the King of Hell just came by to manipulate me into doing his bidding, which succeeded. I have an IOU with him which he counted on, I’m quite sure of that. He’ll make sure to conveniently safe me in the future from a threat he totally did not send himself to even the score. But what he did not know was that he just helped me a lot more than he thought. The names he just gave me are the names of the demons within your company, including one Charles Healey. But… I have bad news as well.”

“Worse news than telling me that demons are trying to take over my company?”

“Actually… yes I think so. I’m sorry Tony.”

You turn the list around and slowly slide it over to him, pointing at the last name on the list:

Virginia ‘Pepper’ Pots.

**  
  
  
**

“No. That has to be wrong. He’s tricking you. Not her…” Tony’s voice wavers slightly at the end.

“I’m so sorry Tony but we have to check. I’ll get a few things done. Can you call her and ask her to be here in an hour? Tony if she is not possessed we will know. If she is possessed I will get the demon out of her I promise.” You take his hand and squeeze it tightly to get him out of his daze.

“J.A.R.V.I.S. notify Pepper that I need her here and to meet me in the penthouse in an hour.”

“At once sir.”

He sighs and squeezes your hand back.

“How will we do this?”

“You don’t need to be here for it if you don’t want to… It’s not very pretty sometimes… I’ll do anything I can not to hurt Pepper though.”

“I want to be here. Now what can I do?”

It took the two of you nearly the full hour to get everything ready and sit down on the sofa in the parlor. Tony had managed to reign in his emotions for now and get up his façade while you were totally calm.

“Miss Potts just entered the elevator.”

“Thanks J.A.R.V.I.S.” you say while looking at Tony again. Even though you knew that everything must be hell for him right now he looks as cool as ever while sipping at another drink.

“Tony? Where are you?” You hear Pepper’s voice from the hallway, seconds before she joins you in the living room. “There you are Tony. Who is that? I don’t think we have been introduced yet. I’m Pepper Potts.”

She walks over to you to shake your hand and you see that she freezes when she steps on the rug in front of the sofa. You calmly stand up and take a bottle with you that had been standing next to you on a little table. As soon as you splash some of the holy water onto her face Pepper screams and falls to her knees, which makes Tony jump up.

“Don’t even try to get away bitch. You’re standing on a devil’s trap.” You nudge the rug to the side with your toes and reveal the markings on the floor. You turn to Tony when you notice that his face is full of worry for her.

“Don’t worry Tony. Remember what I told you: holy water won’t hurt her, only the demon. And don’t listen to her talk. Demons lie.”

You turn around to face Pepper again whose eyes flash black.

“How long have you been possessing her?”

“Why should I tell you that princess?”

You splash her with the water again and let her scream.

“I could do this all day you know? No one will come to look for you. We have all the time in the world.”

20 minutes of holy water treatment she was ready to tell you a few things.

She told you about the other demons, how they were working for a crossroad demon by the name of Caleb. She confirmed the information that you got from Crowley. There were three other demons apart from Caleb within Stark Industries: Lexi Phillips, Luca Davies and Ryan Webb all who had gotten recent promotions from Pepper. Caleb stored the souls in the manor his host was living in and they were protected by his hellhound.

By the time you got all of those answers Tony looked about ready to break down. He didn’t know how much longer he could take the sounds of Pepper screaming in pain.

“How long have you been possessing her?” It was your last question. While it did not matter to you Tony needed the information. The question made the demon laugh cruelly.

“Oh I’ve had her for quite a while. Do you remember your first public appearance after you came back Anthony? The day you nearly kissed her? Well it wouldn’t really have been her, it would have been me. She never loved you, it was all me, playing my role!”

You dumped some more holy water over her head to shut her up and started the exorcism. She screamed even louder as the words rang out, asking, pleading for you to stop but you didn’t. You kept going until the cloud of black smoke erupted from Pepper’s mouth. You kept going all the way to the end of the second part of the exorcism that would send the demon back to hell, back to Crowley who would take good care of her, while Pepper collapsed on the ground.

“J.A.R.V.I.S.! Get Bruce to the medical floor!” Tony ordered him as soon as you gave him a nod that you were finished. To show him that she was okay again you dropped a few more drops of holy water on her. There was no reaction.

Tony kneeled down next to her and lifted her up bridal style while she slowly woke up.

“Mister Stark? What happened? My head hurts…”

You stop him before he can leave with her for the medical floor.

“Miss Potts? What is the last thing you can remember?”

“I… I was getting ready for a party, I think… I blacked out… What happened? Mister Stark what happened here?”

You stepped out of his way so that he could take her to the medical floor. You knew it was hard on him and that he would need to explain what happened to her. You really didn’t want to be in his shoes right now.

“J.A.R.V.I.S. please notify me if Tony needs any help or can’t handle the explaining to Pepper.”

“Of course Miss (y/n).”

It took a while for Tony to come back to the penthouse. In the meantime you had replenished your supply of holy water and moved the rug back over the devil’s trap.

Tony looked drained as he walked back in and sat down next to you on the sofa.

“I can’t believe it. I never noticed anything. She’s been with me for years.”

“Believe me not even hunters notice it sometimes. I remember when I was possessed, back when I hadn’t gotten my tattoo yet. It took Sam and Dean 3 days to notice that something was wrong and even then they only noticed because I clawed my way back out and told them. They exorcised it afterwards… but I remembered everything that happened. I think it is worse to know that you are being possessed and not being able to do anything against it. To watch while something else moves your body against your will. Words leaving your mouth that you have no control over… At least she doesn’t remember. I know it’s hard for you but it is better for her this way. Did you tell her the truth?”

He shakes his head slowly.

“I couldn’t. She now has the chance for a normal life. Away from the Avengers, from demons, aliens and monsters, away from all of that fucked up shit. If someone deserves that it’s Pepper.”

“That’s quite a grown up thing for you to say playboy.” You joke while you pat his back.

“I know it’s a bit creepy right?” At least he tries to joke back and chuckles quietly at his own joke.

“But right now, I need to get drunk.”

“Well that sounds more like the Tony I’ve known for a full day.”

“It’s only been a day, huh? One royally fucked up day that was.”

“Tell me if you don’t want to go to that party tomorrow, I’d understand.”

“Oh no, I’m not sitting that out. They will bleed for doing that.”

“Worse than that will happen to them, that I can promise you. Crowley was waiting for them to be send back to hell and down there he will torture them in ways unimaginable to us.”

“Good.” He answers with a grim smile on his face.

“Now, do you mind if I join you in getting drunk tonight? Someone will have to haul your ass into bed when you have enough!” you just couldn’t leave him alone tonight, not after what happened with Pepper.

“You’re welcome to join me in drinking and in bed later, babe.” He tells you with a wink.

“Don’t count on the last one playboy. It’s still a lot of time until the party tomorrow. Let’s get drunk.”

That night you took care not to drink too much as having a hangover would not be beneficial to you during the party the next day. You listened to Tony while he got drunk and told you stories of Pepper. It was the least you could do.

You noticed that it was suddenly silent and saw that Tony fell asleep with his head lying on the bar. You sighed and shook your head. Luckily you had a bit of experience with this after getting Dean from a lot of bars over the years. You walked over to him and shook his shoulder slightly to see if you would wake up again. He didn’t. He was already too deep asleep to react so you slowly lifted him into a fireman’s carry to move him to his bedroom.

You managed to get him onto his bed with no more problems and took his shoes off before moving him so that he was lying on his side before leaving the bedroom and closing the door behind you.

“Keep an eye on him, alright J.A.R.V.I.S.? And goodnight.” You yawn while you move to the elevator to get to your floor and to your bed.

“Of course, Miss (y/n). Goodnight.”

Thankfully you woke up late the next morning and only with a slight headache that could be easily cured with greasy food. You hoped Tony’s headache was not too bad and that he was feeling at least a little bit better today.

You took a shower and after dressing joined the others in the kitchen of the common floor.

“Morning.” You mumble while heading over to the coffee maker. Only Tony and Bruce were currently occupying the kitchen.

“Morning, babe!” You stop before reaching the coffee machine and stare at Tony.

“How… can you be so… I know I only have a slight headache… Are you absolutely immune to hangovers?”

“I wish I were, I’m just… resistant.”

“You could call it that. There is also the fact that you don’t get a hangover if you don’t stop drinking." Bruce is right of course. You can see that Tony is already nipping at a drink again.

“If you get drunk again you’re not allowed to come with me to the hunt…” you tell him while you finally get your coffee.

“Don’t worry I’ll keep it to a minimum.” He grumbles a bit at being told what to do.

“Wait, what do you mean with ‘again’?” Bruce throws in.

“Well he was drunk last night.”

“I was not that drunk.”

“You were. You did not react when I tried to wake you. I had to carry you to your bed.”

“Huh, so you managed to carry me? So that’s how I got to bed. Didn’t think you would be strong enough to carry me. I also thought you would just let me sleep at the bar. So you do like me!”

“Yes, I like you playboy. Somewhat.” You answer to the bright grin on your face with one of your own.

“I knew it.”

“Of course you did. Mind if I raid your fridge? I’m starving.”

“Babe, I invited you to stay here. That includes the use of the fridge. Knock yourself out.”

“I would suggest staying away from Natasha’s ice cream, Loki’s pudding and Thor’s Pop-Tarts though!” Bruce tells you before he leaves for his lab.

“Thanks for the info!”

You wait until you were sure that Bruce had left while you prepared yourself some eggs and bacon with toast for breakfast.

“How are you playboy?”

“Don’t worry about me babe, I’ll be alright.”

“You can tell me not to worry as often as you want, I’ll still worry. If you don’t want to answer me that’s fine. How’s Pepper doing?”

“She left this morning. I could talk her out of resigning. Bruce made up some medical story, so that I did not have to tell her the truth, but she’s missing years. I don’t think I could run the company the way she does.”

“I think as soon as this is done you need a vacation playboy. Somewhere warm and sunny to take your mind of things.”

“That’s actually not a bad plan. How about it? Want to keep me company?”

You have to laugh at that.

“I’d actually love to but it’s not in the job description. I never had a vacation in my whole life. No time for things like that.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Never?”

“Never.”

Tony jumps up at what nearly causing you to drop your eggs which you were moving to a plate.

“Damnit! Don’t surprise me like that, I nearly dropped my food!”

“You’re coming with me for a vacation after this!”

You blink at him a few times before answering.

“Come again?”

“I won’t accept a no! Everybody needs vacations and I’ll make damn sure your first vacation will be pure awesomeness! Just leave everything to me!”

“Seeing as you won’t accept a no I don’t have much of a choice do I?” you smile at him. “Alright, if I live through tonight I’ll accompany you.”

“Awesome! Now hurry up you have to get ready!”

“…Get ready for what?” you look at him a little confused. The party was still nearly 10 hours away, what would you need to get ready for right now? You would just need to take your essentials with you later, but you would have to hide them after putting on your dress.

“For the party! I ordered a lot of treatments for you, you know? If you go to a party with me you have to look your best!”

“So you want me to go through girly hell for that?”

“Yes. Natasha will go with you to keep you company.”

“There is no way for me to get out of this…?”

“Absolutely not. My driver will take you everywhere.”

You groan before finishing your breakfast.

“Alright, the sooner I’ll get started the sooner I’m done with this. Oh and don’t try to exchange my shoes for anything else! I can’t wear narrow heels while fighting. I’ll break my ankles and die!”

With that you leave to get Natasha. This was going to be a very long day.

To say that it was a long day was the understatement of the year. You had so many beauty treatments that you never had heard of before that you did not even bother remember their names. After you got a haircut everything went downhill for you.

At least Natasha was with you which made the day somewhat bearable. You both entertained each other with stories in the times when nobody else was listening. It seemed like Natasha enjoyed the time she could simply be a woman. Not an agent or an avenger, just a woman.

You could understand that very well, after all there were not many female hunters out there that you knew of. It sometimes felt a bit lonely to you and you asked Natasha if she was feeling the same. When she nodded to answer your question you knew that it was the reason the two of you bonded during only a day. You knew she would have your back when you needed her, just like you would have hers.

The two of you managed to return to the tower only an hour before the party. Your hair had been done by a professional into an elegant updo as well as your makeup, which was kept simple to get a natural look.

Natasha followed you to your floor where she helped you into your dress and you borrowed a thigh holster from her into which you slipped your angel blade for the worst case and a pocket flask full with holy water. You put the iron ring onto your right hand and set a pair of simple black glasses onto your nose. You also got a matching purse from Natasha into which you slip a small container filled with salt and another flask of holy water as well as a few pieces of chalk in case that a devil’s trap was needed and you got the chance to draw it.

You thought for a moment about everything you needed and everything you brought and while you were not happy to only have such little amounts of holy water with you it would have to do.

You thanked Natasha who hugged you and wished you good luck before you left for the penthouse were Tony and Steve were waiting. Tony seemed to be fussing about something while Steve tried to calm him down.

“Hey playboy, ready to go?”

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes, babe? It will be difficult to keep my hands off you…”

“Play nice Tony. You look beautiful (y/n).” You blush slightly before thanking Steve quietly and looking at Tony.

“A bowtie? Ugh, I hate those things…” Tony freezes for a second before taking the bowtie off and exchanging it for a black tie matching his tuxedo which makes Steve laugh at him.

“I told you the tie would be better!”

“Shut it, Capsicle! Alright. Are you ready to leave?” He holds out his arm for you and you take it before answering.

“As ready as I’ll ever be. How will we get there?”

“With style.” He grins slightly at you.

“I expected nothing less but that doesn’t really answer my question.” The two of you say goodbye to Steve who wishes you both luck before stepping into the elevator. The second you notice you’re moving up you glare at him.

“You are an evil man…”

“What have I done to you?” He asks while he clutches at his heart dramatically.

“I hate flying…” you mumble quietly as the two of you step out onto the roof where a helicopter was waiting for you.

“Don’t worry, it’s not that far. Only 10 minutes tops, you’ll get through it.”

“I don’t have a choice do I?”

“Not really.”

The flight was really not as bad as you had thought it would be. You were still not a fan of heights but hey, at least you didn’t die because you rode a helicopter.

“So you know the plan: You shake as many hands as possible and I’ll be on the lookout for demons. We know who they are but that way we can check if anymore demons hide out here.”

“And you just need to look pretty. Why do I get the hard job?” he jokes lightly.

“We’ll talk about that again when killing the hellhound comes up.”

“Point taken. Why are you wearing those glasses anyway? Forgot to ask earlier.”

“They were scorched with holy fire, through them I’ll be able to see the hellhound. They are invisible to humans otherwise.”

“Alright, those sound really creepy.”

“They are, now shut it we’re going in. And remember: only call me by my first name.”

A lot of people seemed to be surprised that Tony Stark himself made an entrance to the party and he was instantly greeted by the host, none other than Charles Healey himself. You had not anticipated the amount of paparazzi who nearly fell over each other while Healey shook Tony’s hand und you, still on his arm, tried to give a charming smile and ignore the flashes of the cameras.

You really hoped that Sam and Dean would not see this, they’d have a stroke…

Maybe you should have thought of that earlier. You tried to keep their hands in your field of vision and while he had not flinched when he touched the ring that did not mean anything. Some demons were simply so used to pain that they could ignore it, especially more powerful ones.

As soon as Tony took his hand away you noticed the small burn mark on Healey’s hand which he didn’t even bother to hide.

Of course he didn’t think that there could be hunters at a party like this. Boy, was he in for a surprise.

After Tony shook a lot of hands the two of you got yourself something to drink. Thanks to him you had determined that there really were only four demons in total.

It wouldn’t go unnoticed if Tony Stark decided not to drink at a party and the two of you couldn’t afford to gather too much attention. Well, more attention than being Tony Stark and his date brought with it.

While you nipped on a glass of champagne Tony got himself a scotch and moved to stand beside you.

“So. Was the information good?”

You nod in reply.

“Now we only need to get them all together, we can’t let one of them get away.”

“Don’t worry about it babe. I’ve got a plan. I’ll play the drunk later this evening and tell him that I need to talk to him at his home right away. If what you said about their plan is true they won’t pass up the chance to get rid of me while I’m drunk and not in my suit.” He whispers into your ear. In response you let out a girly giggle and try not to look disgusted with yourself.

“I can’t believe I’m playing the date. Okay let’s follow your plan. And don’t let me go if they ask if they should drive me back or something.”

He nods and you start to get your plan into motion.

A few hours of mingling, small-talk and a few drinks for Tony later he makes his move. You are still holding onto his arm when the two of you move to talk to Healey who is currently occupied with mingling as well. By now you had slipped the iron ring onto your left hand thinking that it may be a bit suspicious if he would be burned by both of your rings.

“Charles! It’s been way too long since we talked!” Tony was way too loud for someone sober. If you had not known about the plan he would have convinced you in a heartbeat.

“How are you Mister Stark? Oh I don’t think you have introduced me to your lovely date yet.” He takes your hand and places a small kiss upon your knuckles. “Charles Healey, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

“(y/n) and the pleasure is all mine Mister Healey. This is a beautiful party.” Tony interrupts him before he can answer to that, trying to be a bit quieter than before.

“Charles. I need to talk to you… There is a problem within the company. We need to talk right now.” He takes care to add a little drunken drawl to his speech and you’re quite impressed with his acting skills. Healey looks surprised for a moment but nods.

“Of course. My mansion is only a few minutes away, why don’t we talk there? I could have your date brought home for you.”

“Noooooo. She’s staying with me. She’s going home with me later…!” He gives you a flirty wink to which you answer with the girly giggle you practiced earlier. You really wanted to gag at the sound leaving your throat but made sure that nothing of it was visible on your face.

“Of course. Please follow me, I’ll have my driver bring us there.” He took out his phone to send a few text messages before shoving it back into his pocket and showing you to the back exit where a car was already waiting for you. Tony helped you inside and sat down as well with Healey following both of you.

  
  
The car ride was silent and only took a few minutes. As soon as the car stopped Healey opened the door and stepped outside. Tony followed him and held out his hand for you to take. Afterwards the three of you stepped inside the mansion. You noticed that another car was stopping in the driveway when the door was being closed behind you.

You needed a plan fast. You couldn’t just kill all of them the second they came inside. There would be questions and people had seen Tony and you leave with him. There was also no time to get a devil’s trap ready and you only had a limited amount of holy water with you. It was clearly not enough to keep 4 demons at bay. You also hadn’t found the hellhound yet. It would be the most deadly enemy of the evening.

Maybe you could get rid of the other three while Tony was talking to Caleb. You would have to kill them but you were quite sure that Crowley would be happy enough if he at least got the red-eye back to torture. You took the pocket flask out of your purse and gave it to Tony.

“I thought you might want this back.” You told him with a smile. Of course he knew what was inside. “Could you please tell me where I can find the restroom?” you smile and give Tony’s arm a squeeze while whispering a short ‘keep him busy’ to him to which he nods slightly.

“Don’t keep me waiting too long my dear. We’ll be done here in a few minutes.”

You let go of him and leave the room, noticing the three remaining demons downstairs. You walk down to them, swaying slightly.

“I’m sorry could you please help me…? I’m not feeling well…” You waited until you were close enough to them to strike. The second they were all within your reach you bowed down a little, pretending to be sick. As one of them moved to help you, you slipped the angel blade from your thigh into your hand and stabbed him into the stomach.

Not missing a beat you whirled around to get the other man next. Your weapon slid easily into his chest. Your eyes zeroed in on the remaining woman whose eyes were black by now. You saw that she wanted to scream to warn their leader but you managed to get your hand over her mouth barely fast enough to stop her and kill her by ramming your blade into her side.

Three down, only two to go. It would be hard to exorcise the demon but luckily you and Tony had been prepared. You had asked Natasha earlier to record the exorcism chant and send it to both of your cellphones after she had told you that she was fluent in Latin. You took out the phone and selected the recording, pausing it before it could start.

You quickly cleaned your blade a bit on the demons clothes before slipping it back into place and moving upstairs again. You really hoped that Tony was alright.

When you entered the room you saw the two of them sitting on the sofa talking. Healey’s eyes narrowed as he saw you entering the room. It seemed like you shouldn’t have returned alive.

“I’m sorry I got a bit lost… It’s such a beautiful huge mansion…” the instance those words left your mouth you could tell that he was not buying it. His eyes flash red and you hit play on your phone, starting Natasha’s exorcise chant which is resounding through the whole room.

The demon grabs his head for a moment giving Tony enough time to get away from him and unscrew the pocket flask you had given him.

“You damn hunter!”

You start flying through the room and end pinned against a bookshelf, gasping in pain. Tony manages to hit the demon with his holy water which makes him drop you and scream out in pain.

You jump up and draw your angel blade again running to get close to the demon. You grab onto him and slice him a few times to keep him in pain and occupied. With you grabbing onto him he would also not be able to teleport away from you, he would have to take you with him.

Suddenly you could hear a loud growling from behind you, telling you he had managed to summon his pet. You slipped the second flask from your thigh holster and threw it to Tony who barely succeeded in catching it while whirling around to intercept the dog before it could get to Tony who was holding your cellphone.

“The pet is here!” you knew that you only needed a bit more time, the chant was almost finished and you prevented the monster from getting to Tony by jumping between them and slicing at it with your blade. It was a lucky shot but you hit him good, slicing through invisible muscle. The dog whined loudly before changing his target to you and charging. That you slipped on the ground and fell saved your live from the sharp teeth of the canine. He still got your arm, giving you a well-sized cut that already started bleeding heavily but you were lucky enough that it was your nondominant arm. While the canine turned around and prepared to charge you again you rolled around and rammed your angel blade into his head, covering yourself in a lot of blood and killing the beast.

You tried to slow your breathing and looked over to Tony just in time to see the chant finish and the black smoke that was the demon leave the body. The host collapsed and you let out a sigh of relieve.

Thank god this was over.

Tony came over to you, looking at you worriedly while he helped you up.

“You alright?”

“I’m still alive and the dog is not. Just peachy.” You hold a hand onto your wound to try and stop the blood flowing out.

“It’s not as bad as it looks. I just really want to get out of here right now and have a shower.”

“Yeah but first I want to see it.” He takes the glasses from you and moves them onto his own nose. “Do you know how weird it was to see you fighting and getting hurt by nothing? Holy shit, that is creepy!” He quickly gives back the glasses while you chuckle. “Come on babe, let’s go back. I’m so ready for a vacation right now.”

“Well I lived through this, I think I promised to go with you…”

“So where do you want to go?” he asks you while the two of you leave the mansion. You had messaged Nick to send a team to deal with the cleanup and to pick you up as well as one to Crowley that he could pick up his souls. While you initially wanted to just free them that was not your choice to make. They had made their deals.

“Warm and sunny sounds nice, I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Let’s go. I’m sure the party isn’t over yet.”

“…Are you fucking kidding me? I’m covered in demon dog guts and you want me to go back to the party?”

“Not that party.” He grins cheekily before continuing. “There is a party in my pants and you are invited.” He manages to get out of your reach before you can smack him and runs away laughing loudly.

“TONY! You goddamned playboy, get your ass back here and let me kill you!”


	3. ...with Bruce

You relished the silence of the next morning, after all it was not very often that you could sleep in without the fear of something attacking you in your room.

Even in the guest room of Natasha’s floor you still slept with your gun hidden beneath your pillow. You stretched before sitting up and taking out the file again to review it.

There was not really much to go on right now. You only had information about men going missing in Harlem and the thought that you might need to wait until the next man was taken or one of the victims turned up made your blood boil.

After all the men had nothing in common apart from being male and being taken in Harlem. They all had different jobs, workplaces, some were married while others were single or divorced and all looked as different as they could.

You climbed out of bed when you heard a knock on your door.

“Morning, (y/n). I thought maybe you’d like to go out for breakfast with Clint and me? He’s been bugging me about those stories that you promised to tell him for hours.”

“Thanks for stopping him from waking me up then.” You smiled at her. “I’ll be out in a second. Just let me get dressed okay?”

“Alright. We’ll wait for you downstairs.” You hurried up and dressed yourself, hiding at least a knife on your person in case something happened. A hunter always had to be prepared after all.

The moment you stepped into the elevator you were met with Bruce, who seemed to be on his way down as well.

“Ah, good morning (y/n).”

“Morning Doc. I see you’re wearing the locket.” At that he raised an eyebrow at you.

“Doc?”

“Yeah I hope you don’t mind the nickname…”

“It’s… alright… I’ve had worse. And thank you again for the locket.”

“Don’t mention it, you need it more than I do. Where are you heading?”

“I was going to get breakfast…”

“How about you join Nat, Birdy and me for breakfast? Of course only if you don’t mind hearing a few stories… Birdy wants to hear them.”

“I don’t know if that is a good idea…”

“Please Doc? You look like going outside for a bit would do you some good.” He hesitated for a moment before answering.

“Alright. I’ll accompany you. At least Clint will be preoccupied and neither he nor Tony can try to get the other guy to come out…” He gave you a hesitant smile and you had to laugh.

“Oh if it’s like this it shall be my utmost concern to distract them whenever I have the chance!” You stated over dramatically, making him laugh quietly.

“That would be much appreciated.” The two of you walked over to Natasha and Clint when you reached the lobby. They seemed to be quite surprised when you told them that Bruce would join you but happy that he decided to tag along.

What originally should have been breakfast turned into a few hours of storytelling. Clint couldn’t get enough of it and was pouting when you told him that you would lose your voice if you told any more. Natasha had listened intently as well but she was wondering how someone who lived through all those things at such a young age could tell those stories so happily.

Most who had lived through hard times tended to lose their smiles but you had managed to hang on to them and for that she respected you. Bruce on the other hand was quite interested in the powers and abilities of a few things that you told them about. They were all especially fascinated by Shapeshifters.

“So, you’re telling me they can just become anyone they want to be? And tap into the memories and thoughts of anyone they’re impersonating?” Natasha asked, clearly interested in the subject.

“As long as they’re still alive, yes.”

“Those would be the perfect spies… why don’t we have any at S.H.I.E.L.D.? How could you find one if they can just become whoever they want to?”

“Well most don’t just change their form, they have to shed into it. Meaning that they shed their skin, teeth and nails. Underneath there is the new form they want to take. Some get it done in a few minutes, for others that process takes hours and from what I’ve heard it’s very painful. That means you can sometimes find a pile of skin… which is as disgusting as it sounds, believe me. That and they show a retinal flare on videos. Whenever they are filmed their eyes glow.”

“How detailed are the changes?”

“Very. They gain the same fingerprints and DNA.”

“Has anyone ever gotten to examine one? It would be very interesting to find out what in their bodies enables them to shift like that…” Bruce thought out loud contributing something for the first time during their conversation.

“Not that I know of. Most people don’t even know they exist or would call you crazy for trying to explain it to them.”

“And how do you kill them?” Clint asked while he finished his coffee.

“You could always lop off the head but a silver knife to the heart tends to do it as well.”

“What about other injuries? That can’t be the only way…”

“From what I know it is. While silver is harmful to them at contact they can heal the wounds if you give them enough time for it. They regenerate anything else pretty fast.”

“That’s astonishing…” Bruce remarked. “Do you think you could get me some tissue samples when you hunt one the next time? Maybe some blood as well?”

“Eh… of course Doc… I’ll try. But if may be easier if you can get the whole corpse… that way I don’t have to take any samples… Because that would be really disgusting…” Bruce looked at you for a moment before glancing back to the ground.

“Of course, I’m sorry. I did not mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“Don’t worry Doc, it’s not that. It’s just I’ve already seen that too many times and I always remember those piles of skin when I think about them.” You shuddered a bit at the thought. “I’ll be sure to notify you if I have to go after one again.” At this you received a smile from him.

“Thank you.” The three of you continued talking for a while. You were glad that Bruce seemed to be a little more comfortable around you and that he decided to take part in the conversation. It was almost time for lunch when Bruce took a glance at his watch.

“Sorry it’s already late, I have to leave now… I still have a few things to do.” He placed some money on the table for his breakfast and the coffee he had consumed during your conversation.

“It’s alright. Guess we’ll see you later then?” you smiled at him.

“Of course, I should be back by evening.” He waved as he left. After paying you were about to leave as well with Natasha and Clint when your cellphone rang. It was the ringtone for your private phone. You told them that they should go first before answering your phone.

“Yes?” You didn’t bother stating your name. The few people who had this number knew only to call you on it if it was important.

“One of the missing men just turned up.” Nick’s voice answered on the other end. “I’m in contact with the police, they are still at the place the body was found and nothing was moved yet. I just send you the address, you should get there as fast as possible. They are waiting for a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.”

“Thanks Nick, I’ll hurry.” You stuffed the phone back into your pocket before you started your dash back to the tower. You had read the address and it was too far away on foot, meaning you needed your car. You also needed your badge and to change clothes. Natasha and Clint had not walked very far yet and as soon as they saw you running looked at each other before running as well to keep up with you.

“What happened?” Natasha asked concerned.

“A victim turned up. I need to get there.” Clint and Natasha nodded in unison before he asked:

“Do you need help?”

“Thanks but it’s alright, I’ll manage on my own. If one of the Avengers shows up they’ll just panic, thinking it’s something big.” They both nodded again, completely understanding your argument.

You reached the tower a few minutes later and climbed into your car to get to your hotel. The drive took only a few minutes as well and not even 20 minutes after receiving the call you were on your way to the address in Harlem, where the victim had been found, with all your things in your trunk and appropriate clothing on your body. You stopped the car near the police tape and stepped out, walking over to the roped in area. When someone tried to stop you, you showed him your S.H.I.E.L.D. badge.

“I was told that you were waiting for me.” You told the officer as he already lifted the tape for you.

“Of course ma’am. This way please.” He was young and polite, earning him a smile from you. He led you to an older man with a cigarette in his mouth.

“Aren’t you a little young to be a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., Missy?” He asked you a little gruffly causing you to raise an eyebrow.

“Aren’t you a little old to work with the police, old man?” You shut back making him chuckle.

“Got some premature gray hair. Who wouldn’t get them with cases like this?” You followed him to the body that was covered with a thin plastic sheet to protect it until the coroner could cart it off. He squat down next to the body and lifted the sheet.

“Looks to me like somebody ripped his throat out. I’ve never seen anything like that before.” You crouched down next to him to get a closer look.

“You wouldn’t believe how often I hear that sentence.” You answered while looking at the victim’s throat. While the cops had never seen this before you had. It looked like a vampire had chewed on this man. There were no serious wounds apart from the throat, meaning that it was most likely the cause of death.

“Are those rope marks?” You asked while pointing at his wrists. The gruff old man next to you nodded in response.

“Those are not the only ones. His ankles were bound as well.”

“Alright.” You got up again. “That’s all I needed to see. Would you mind giving me a call when you get the autopsy report?” You handed him a card with one of your phone numbers on it.

“Will do, Missy.” He took your card from you. “I’ll call you as soon as it’s ready. It would be faster if you could come by and get it, there’s too much to do right now.”

“Thanks old man.” You grinned at him before leaving. You needed to wait for the report now so you returned to the tower after sending a message to Nick that you had a look at the corpse and that you would be taking care of the rest.

The fact that you did not receive the call for the autopsy report that day would have annoyed you if being with the Avengers hadn’t been so much fun.

As soon as you got back Natasha and Clint invited you to go to the gym with them where they sparred with you and showed you a few moves.

After taking a shower you went back to the common floor where Loki returned your books to you. You talked with him about them with Thor listening and eating Pop-tarts.

The others joined you in the kitchen for dinner apart from Bruce, Bucky and Sam. When you asked Steve told you that Bucky had one of his ‘phases’ were he refused to leave his room and Sam had a date. Tony guessed that Bruce was most likely still at a hospital where he helped out from time to time and had forgotten the time while working. Again.

All in all it was a nice evening and when it got late Tony told you that you could use the floor beneath Natasha’s as your own. You thanked him before telling everyone goodnight and turning in for the night.

Your cellphone woke you up early the next morning. It was the ringtone of your second phone. You were quite glad right now that you had selected different ringtones to identify it easier. Still a little tired you reached for it and answered.

“Yes..?” You could not suppress a yawn which your caller heard.

“Time to get up if you want that report, Missy. Just got it myself, you can come to the station to get it.”

“Thanks old man…” You answered before hanging up again. A look on the watch revealed that it was 7 in the morning. You hurried to take a shower and get dressed before you left. On your way down in the elevator you remembered that maybe you should tell the others where you were going.

“J.A.R.V.I.S.? If anyone asks could you tell them I’m working on the case?”

“Of course Miss (y/n).”

“Thanks.” You made your way to your car and drove to the police station that was already very busy. For a second you wondered if it ever got quiet or they just had to start work very early. Probably the first option. You went up to the receptionist and showed him your badge.

“I’m here for an autopsy report.” The man nodded before searching through the files for a moment.

“Here you go. You can keep the copy. If you have any more questions the coroner is still working.”

“Thank you.” You smiled politely before moving aside and flipping through the report. Your money had been on vampires until you read a very specific line in the report: ‘Unknown agent found in the victim’s blood stream’.

You returned to the tower. Now that you were sure what you were going after it was time to tell the others. Most of them had the time to listen to you but not all were present. Bucky still refused to leave his room and according to J.A.R.V.I.S. Bruce and Natasha were not in the tower right now.

“Alright. Let’s start. Nick came to me with the information of a few men who went missing and up till now it could have been almost anything… But today one of the men turned up.” You opened the file that you had brought and put a few pictures of the corpse onto the table.

“Ugh… What does that?” Tony asked, clearly disgusted by the images.

“Normally I would say it’s a vampire nest but I found out something else. According to the autopsy report an ‘unknown agent’ was found in his bloodstream. If we add that together we get one thing: A Vetala.” You looked around at their faces to see only confusion. It was clear that none of them had ever heard anything about them before. “Vetala are reptilian-like beings. They normally look human but when they feed they show four pointed fangs and snake-like eyes. They are exceptionally strong and produce a venom that sedates their victims. They inject it with a bite to keep their victims weak while they feed on their blood.” You were not very shocked to see that Tony had turned a little green. “That means that I have to find them. They keep their victims alive as long as possible. Their victims usually die after 3 or 4 feedings.”

“You keep saying they. How do you know it’s not only one?” Clint asked curiously.

“It could be only one but they usually hunt in pairs.” He nodded in response.

“Ok. Who will you be taking with you?”

“Actually I wanted to take Bruce, since I’m confident that I can do this on my own if it’s too much for him… Does anyone know where he is? J.A.R.V.I.S.?”

“Doctor Banner is currently not in the tower. Do you wish for me to call him?”

“Yes, please.”

“At once.” The AI was silent for a minute before talking again.

“He did not pick up. Should I leave a message?” At this Tony piped in.

“No, call Natasha, maybe he’s with her.”

“Of course Sir.” The silence returned before he talked to you again.

“Miss Romanoff is currently not with him. She is on a mission.” Clint pouted at the reply.

“And she didn’t invite me? How rude.”

“Well… Does anyone know where Bruce went?” You asked and everybody shrugged in response. “When was he here the last time J.A.R.V.I.S.?”

“Yesterday morning when you went out to breakfast with him, Miss Romanoff and Mister Barton.” Tony nearly choked on his drink at the response.

“You’re telling us that he never returned and you didn’t inform me?”

“I’m sorry Sir but Doctor Banner is a grown man. I did not think it necessary to inform you of him staying out.” Tony grumbled but could not dispute his logic.

“Were did he go? Does anyone know?” Everyone shrugged again in response and you groaned. “Really? Nobody?”

“I believe I can help you with that, Miss (y/n). Doctor Banner helps out at the Harlem Hospital Center from time to time.”

“Did you just say Harlem?” You asked a little nervous.

“I did, Miss (y/n). Is there a problem with my answer?” The others were now looking at you curiously.

“Fuck.” You swore. “That means I have to go. Tony can you track down his phone and get me the location?” Tony nodded while Clint had to ask you.

“What’s going on? Why do you want to track him down? Maybe he just fell asleep after working.”

“I want to track him down…” You started while shrugging on your jacket. “…because all of those men were taken in Harlem.” Most of them jumped up, ready to help you rescue their friend.

“Then why are we still here?” Steve asked. “Avengers! Assa---“You interrupted him before he could finish his sentence.

“No! If they see you coming they might take their victims hostage or just kill them and flee! I’m going alone, it’s safer that way!” You could clearly see that they were not happy with this but you weren’t going to back down. Before leaving you took out a card with one of your numbers on it and handed it to Tony. “Send me the location to this number. Now I need to leave and if anyone of you follows me and risks the victims and Bruce’s life with that I will kick your asses later!” You shouted while you made your way to your floor where you collected your silver knife, your gun and cellphone. While you could not kill them with the gun you could at least hurt them with it and maybe buy some time if you got into a bad situation. You switched the cellphone to vibrate before stuffing it back into your pocket.

A few minutes later you were already sitting in your car and Tony had send you the last location of Bruce’s cellphone. It was not far away from the hospital so you decided to park your car near the hospital and walk the rest of the way. You found the phone in an alley where it lay with a crack on the screen. Seemed like Bruce was taken and sedated before he could get angry. On a closer inspection you found a few drops of blood near the phone, confirming your suspicion. Bruce had been taken by them. You needed to find him fast. You dialed Tony’s number and held your phone to your ear while trying to find more traces of blood.

“Tony, I need another favor. Could you trace the phones of the other victims as well? The names are in the file.”

“Are you asking me to break the law?” He asked pretending to be shocked.

“Ehhh… I… guess?” He chuckled at your answer.

“Don’t worry babe, already got it. Two of them are at the same location. An abandoned warehouse outside the city, I already sent you the address.” You sighed before you hung up on him and made your way back to your car.

A short drive out of the city later you were on the edge of the district the address led you to. Luckily Tony had included the number of the warehouse or you would surely search forever. You parked your car before you tried to locate the warehouse where the cellphones were located.

It took you almost half an hour to find the right one and sneak into it. The door creaked loudly as you opened it. A look inside revealed an almost empty warehouse.

There was nothing but a few bodies piled on the floor. You searched through the room before approaching the bodies. They were the corpses of the missing men. Most of them anyway. There was one still missing, apart from Bruce. Maybe you could find them before he died as well but you would have to find the right warehouse first. You just stepped outside when you heard someone shouting in pain. Thanks to it you at least knew where to go.

You hurried in the direction where the shout came from and stopped at another seemingly empty warehouse. The only thing that destroyed the image was the flickering light you could see through the windows. You crept around the building to find the best entrance. There was a giant door which was locked with a big padlock and two smaller doors, both locked as well.

You decided to use the door on the far end of the building, as far away from the light as possible. If you were lucky they wouldn’t hear any noises the door made this way.

You stashed the knife before taking out your lock picks and opening the door in a matter of seconds. Thankfully it had been a very simple lock. Your hand reached for the knife again and pulled it out, while you carefully opened the door a bit.

Today seemed to be your lucky day because it made almost no sound. At least no sound that could be heard on the other side of the building. After sneaking inside you closed the door behind you just in case someone came across it. You had to take your time to creep through the building and not to make any sounds while doing so. On your way you had picked up a metal bar with your non-dominant hand as a secondary weapon.

You stopped for a second when you heard voices ahead of you. It sounded like there were two women talking. You could hear other sounds that you couldn’t really identify and crept forwards when the talking stopped again.

The sheen of light came through a door in front of you that was wide open. You leaned against the frame and peaked inside. There was a woman and two men in the room. One of the men was Bruce and he was bound to a chair with his chin resting on his chest. You could see blood at his throat, meaning that the Vetala had already fed from him and kept him sedated. The other man was in a worse condition. The blood was not only on his throat but soaked into shirt as well. The woman was currently working on loosening his bonds. You cursed mentally at the thought of being too late to save him as well but you had no time to dwell on it. After all you had to get Bruce out of there alive.

When you saw him moving his head, waking a little, you started to move into the room.

Luckily the woman had her back to you so you sneaked up to her and managed to surprise her. Bruce was looking at you by now, even though his eyes were a bit unfocused. He watched as you rammed the blade into the blond woman’s chest, right into her heart, and twisted it around.

The second you had twisted the blade her skin started to dry out instantly and she started crumbling apart.

“Don’t worry Bruce, I’ll get you out of here.” You whispered as his eyes seemed to clear a bit and focus on you. You hurried to cut his ties but never finished.

The second Vetala had come back, a very beautiful brunette, and screamed while ripping you away from Bruce and throwing you against a wall. You gasped at the painful contact and slid down to the ground. You had dropped your knife but had managed to hang on to the metal bar.

As soon as you saw the woman coming for you again you hurried to stand up and keep her at a distance with your weapon. You knew she could easily kill you if she got her hands on you again.

While you could not permanently injure her with the metal bar, at least your attacks seemed to hurt her a bit. You tried to inch back to Bruce while fighting where you had dropped your blade.

Your plan was destroyed again as the creature lunged for you and you had to dive out of the way. Now she was between you and your knife again. You swore while she only laughed at you.

You pulled your gun out and shot her three times into the chest to distract her long enough to make a dash for the knife. You didn’t have to start though because while she had been distracted Bruce had managed to get out of his remaining ties and picked up the knife. He had watched as you killed the first one so he decided to just mimic what he had seen. He pulled at the distracted monster’s arm and turned her around, plunging the knife deep into her heart. He was still affected by the venom and had to work hard to even stay on his feet right now. The only reason why he did not fall was him holding on to the knife right now.

You witnessed all that and saw that the Vetala was not dying.

“Twist it!” You shouted at Bruce who was struggling to stay upright. She had revealed her razor sharp teeth and was just about to bite Bruce again when you heard her scream and she crumbled apart.

Poor Bruce fell to the floor with her but at least the venom seemed to lose its effect.

You were by his side in an instant and kneeled down next to him.

“You alright Doc?” He had his eyes closed and was trying hard to keep himself calm, to not turn into the other guy and you could see his struggles. “Doc, look at me!” You held his head in your hands to make him look at you but he refused to open his eyes. His body already had a light green tint and he was twisting around on the floor.

“Bruce!” His eyes snapped open as you shouted his name. “Focus on my eyes and my voice.” You started as calmly as possible. “Breath with me. In…… And out…. In…… And out… Everything is alright Bruce. You are completely safe.” He struggled to match your calm and slow breathing pattern. “I’ll bring you home. Everything is fine.” You released a sigh of relief as soon as Bruce had managed to calm down enough to breathe with you.

“That was dangerous. You shouldn’t have done that. I could have killed you…” The doctor whispered, still lying on the ground.

“You didn’t.” You smiled at him and helped him up, pulling one of his arms around your shoulders to help him walking.

“How did you know how to do that?” He asked you while the two of you walked back to your car.

“It’s not that different from keeping a pureblood werewolf from turning in rage.” You answered with a smile. He kept silent for a moment before smiling at you as well.

“Thank you. For getting me out of there and for keeping me calm… I don’t know what I would have done without you.” At that you had to laugh.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s my job after all! Now let’s get you back to the others.” You helped him into the passenger’s seat of your car before continuing. “They were worried and not very happy that I did not allow them to help.”

“Why didn’t you?” He asked as soon as you had slid into your own seat.

“Too dangerous. Would have tipped them off most likely. That and I only had the one knife. I was a little surprised but you did well there. Thanks for saving me as well by the way.”

“I could have killed you, I don’t think you should thank me for that…”

“But I did. Stop beating yourself up about that. You didn’t kill me.” He stayed silent for the rest of the ride before talking again when you parked near the Avenger’s tower.

“I’d really appreciate it though if I didn’t have to do something like that again…”

“We’ll try to keep it theoretical from now on, alright? You at least need to know about them.”

“Fine with me.” He stopped when you were just about to walk into the elevator, making you glance back at him curiously.

“Bruce? What is it?” He seemed to look a little upset and you were a little concerned by that. He returned your gaze before answering.

“I forgot to take samples!”

”Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!”


	4. ...with Clint

The next day started way too early for your liking, thanks to a still excited Clint waking you and Natasha up.

“Good morning!” he chirped down the hall happily. “Come on (y/n), you promised me to tell me what happened after the books!” You groaned and turned around in the bed of the guest room Natasha gave to you and looked at the clock. It was 7 o’ clock. In the fucking morning! That man was going to die.

He stormed into your room to get you out of bed, just to be greeted by a pillow to the face.

“What the fuck?! It’s 7 in the freaking morning! Couldn’t you have let me sleep at least a bit longer?! Sleep is a damn luxury for someone like me!” You shouted at him, while he only smiled and threw the pillow back at you. You were too tired to dodge so it landed right in your face.

You glared at him.

“Start running…” You growled before leaping out of bed.

Natasha came out of her room to see Clint running down the hall and you following and threatening him.

“It’s way too early for this…” She retreated back into her room to sleep some more.

It took Clint nearly 20 minutes to finally lose you and hide in the vents, after which you decided to take a shower, as sleep wouldn’t come to you again anyway. What a great start of a day.

Damn that promise.

After showering and dressing you went to the common floor and the kitchen, which you found with a little help from J.A.R.V.I.S.

Tony was already sitting at the counter, nursing a drink and after you grumble a short morning to him, he looks up at you.

“Let me guess: Bird brain decided you had enough sleep and that it’s story time?”

“Yep. Got away before I could shoot him though. What are you doing up so early in the morning?”

“Couldn’t sleep.” He says, placing down his glass. “I got you a floor ready, beneath Natasha’s, you can get your stuff from the hotel.”

“Thanks for that and sorry about the sleeping part. I know it’s hard at first to learn about everything out there…”

“Pfff, please! I had worse.”

“Sure. I’ll get my stuff then, see you later Tony. And thanks again!”

“Don’t mention it, babe.”

It took you almost an hour to get back to your hotel room. Damn traffic. At least you didn’t spend much time there, as your stuff was always packed and ready to go. You returned you room key to the receptionist before going outside and stuffing the rest of your bags into the trunk of your car.

It would still take a while for the traffic to let up, so you sat down at a little café down the street and got yourself your favorite coffee and some breakfast.

When you get both, someone pulls out the chair next to you and sits down.

“Are you stalking me now?”

“I wouldn’t call it stalking. I would call it making sure you keep your promise… And getting breakfast.” He orders some breakfast as well, before stretching and trying to make himself comfortable on the hard chair.

“So, I’m all ears.”

“Just a sec…” You shoot off a short prayer to Castiel to inform him that – should he hear anything from you for now that could be considered a prayer – it is not and that you are merely telling a new Hunter your story.

“Okay, where should I start?”

It took you hours and a few more coffees – donated by Clint, since he wanted to keep you talking – to tell him how Dean had gotten out of hell, about Angels, the Apocalypse and everything else that had happened to you up to the death of your father and leaving the brothers. You also added a few things Castiel had told you since you left to finish the Leviathan and Purgatory stories.

“I have been through a lot of things in my life… but that is…” He couldn’t really find the right words to describe everything he had heard from you. That did not stop you from completing his sentence though.

“Fucked up?”

“Yeah, you could call it that.”

“Sooo…. Anything else you want to ask or do you think we should leave before someone sends out a search party?”

“You kept your promise, I’m happy. Tell me if you get more information though, those two have quite the extraordinary live… to think that the apocalypse was started and no one even noticed…”

“Yeah it’s a bit weird, I know. Come on, let’s drive back. How did you get here?”

“I walked. I wouldn’t take a car through New York during rush hour…”

“Well I did. I’ll give you a ride.”

The two of you drove back to the tower where everyone else was already up and waiting. After all you had told them that you would decide today who you wanted to take with you as backup.

“What took you so long? Had a date? You wound me babe, I thought we had something special…”

“Quit it Drama Queen, I had a promise to keep. I guess you want to know what the case is about now and who I’ll be taking with me…”

You put down your bag onto the ground.

“Wait, that’s everything you have?”

“Of course it is.” You reply with a raised eyebrow. “I always travel light and since my father’s house was burned down I’ve been on the road. I lived in motels most of the time and sometimes you have to grab your stuff and run. Hunter’s life.”

“Tony stop interrupting her, I want to know who goes with her!”

“Oh shut it, Katniss.” Luckily, Thor interrupts them before the two of them can start arguing again.

“I would be most pleased to accompany you into a fight against those Midgardian creatures, Lady (y/n)! The stories I could tell Lady Sif and the Warriors Three after fighting against such beasts would be quite entertaining!”

“Thank you Thor but I don’t think you’re the right one for this particular case… What I need to hunt is called a ‘Wendigo’. They are cannibalistic monsters who hunt down any human they can get. Sometimes they keep them alive for days to feed on them, sometimes they just devour them. But they don’t stop. Those greedy little fuckers never stop. They hibernate sometimes, but as soon as they awake they need to eat again.”

You look through the round to gauge their reactions. You particularly notice that Tony looks a little green around the nose and that Bruce looks like he could faint any second.

“Tony. Bruce. You don’t have to listen to this. This alone is more information than most humans can handle and I’m not done yet… Maybe you should leave, I hadn’t planned on taking one of you with me anyway. I’ll tell Maria to take care of your Tattoo, Tony. Just remember not to get it anywhere too visible, for those who know it it’s a clear sign to find a hunter.”

Tony downs his drink before nodding and leaving, while Bruce looks quite thankful that he doesn’t have to stay any longer. The two of them hurry out the door and into the lab, where they feel a lot more comfortable. “Anyone else who would rather leave?” You look at them but see them shaking their heads.

“Okay, where was I? Ah, yes, the Wendigo. They are actually high class monsters, very powerful and tricky to hunt, because no matter how good a hunter you are, there is one thing about the Wendigo you have to know: It outsmarts you. Those things are what you would call a ‘perfect hunter’, hard to catch during the day, almost impossible to catch during the night. They usually hunt at night and from what I know have perfect night vision…. I think I have a picture in my journal, give me a sec…”

You take out your journal and start to thumb through it until you find the part about Wendigos and an old sketch that you did yourself. You put the journal on the table and turn it around for them to see.

“That’s one. They are about twelve feet tall, almost invulnerable, incredibly strong, fast and agile. I’ve seen one pull a well-built man while climbing a tree and dodging our attacks like he weighed absolutely nothing. And as if all of that isn’t enough, they are also capable of imitating the voices of their victims.”

“That does sound like a very deadly creature, Lady (y/n), but you said that they are almost invulnerable. How can they be killed?”

“With fire. You have to get in and torch them. Last time I used a flare gun, but you don’t go on a Wendigo hunt without a blowtorch as well.” At that Thor looks at you quite confused.

“What are those tools that you speak of?”

“Ah, I forgot. Asgardian. Right, sorry. Ehm… a flare gun is a gun that fires a projectile that can be used to signal someone, as they produce light and great heat without an explosion and a blowtorch is a can filled with a gas that can be easily ignited. It creates a flame that burns at a very high temperature until it is shut off or the gas runs out. Of course you could always push a Wendigo into a campfire, but that only tends to hurt them a lot and piss them off…”

“Thank you for the explanation Lady (y/n). Not many Midgardians have the patience to explain their tools and ways to us all the time.”

“Don’t worry, I’m used to it. I managed to teach an Angel how to use a cellphone and the importance of it as a hunter. Took a while but now he doesn’t have any problems with it anymore and he was a lot more ignorant of human ways than you are Thor.”

“A…real Angel? Are you trying to tell us that you have talked with an Angel?” You turn to Steve who looks a little bit shocked now.

“Really? You took the idea of monsters in stride, but that there are also the good guys out there shocks you? To be honest not all of them can be called ‘good guys’. Most of them are mindless soldiers, drones that do whatever they are told, no matter how many lives are lost because of it… I guess you are religious Steve?”

“Well I believe in God if that is what you meant… But Angels… how do they look like?”

“For humans they look just like us. A human's senses are not capable of perceiving their real forms. The last woman who tried to take a look at Castiel’s real form got her eyes burned out for it. While they walk the earth they need a host. Just like demons, the only difference is that everyone without protection can be possessed by a demon, but to be possessed by an Angel you have to let them in. They can’t possess a living being without permission.”

“So if Angels are a real thing… so is God right?”

“Are you actually asking me that? I thought you believed in him… But yes. He is real. Not really interested in this world any more from what I have heard, but he exists.” At this Natasha had to laugh.

“Well it’s a good think Tony isn’t here anymore, he would have started a very long, very boring discussion about this.”

“Believe me, I had some problems with that myself, but we got totally off track here. I think if I wait any longer to tell you who I’m taking with me Clint is going to explode!” That gets a laugh out of everyone, except for Clint, who is still waiting like a little kid on Christmas for your decision and glares at you a bit. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry Clint. There is just one more thing that I know of that can keep Wendigos at bay… Guess you all know who I’ll be taking when I tell you it is silver tipped….”

You make a little pause after that, just to screw with him for a bit.

  
  
“…Arrows!”

At this Clint jumps up. “YES!” While his face light’s up like Christmas and Easter are on the same day, everyone else is laughing.

“Yes, I see now why it makes sense to take Brother Barton with you. I do hope that I will get another chance to go out and hunt with you Lady (y/n)!”

“Don’t worry Thor you will. Fury asked me to teach all of you, so I will be going out with everyone at a time. It mostly depends on the kind of monster. Maybe we’ll find something for you next time, big guy.”

“So when will we be leaving? And where do we find it?”

“I hope you’re ready for a little road trip Clint, because absolutely nothing will get me into any type of plane. You can check up on some lore yourself on the way, just to get a feeling for it. And according to the information Nick gave me we’re heading to Allegheny National Forest so suit up for some camping!”

“Does that mean that the rest of us can leave now? I really want to go out for a little flying…”

“Of course, you don’t have to stay any longer, you could have asked earlier Sam.”

“Well I didn’t… I guess the two of you will be gone for a few days?”

“Depends on how long it takes us to track the beast down. The reports on where the people went missing are not clear enough to know where the bastard is right away, so it might take a bit, yeah.”

“Guess we’ll see you when you get back then! Don’t get killed out there!”

With that he hurried to leave and the others said their goodbye’s as well before leaving the two of you alone. You text Maria to tell her that they all still need the tattoos, to get in a good tattoo artist who can keep his mouth shut and to put the symbols somewhere that is not easily visible.

“So…. How long do you need to get ready?”

“A road trip? Really? That’s a 6 hour drive! We could take a Quinjet and be there within an hour!”

You glare at him.

“First of: I’m not going near anything that flies, accept that. Second point: This is not a S.H.I.E.L.D. operation, meaning no S.H.I.E.L.D. resources unless Nick decides to give us anything. I actually already told him that we’ll be needing silver-tipped arrows for you and he will take care of those. That is a lot more than I usually have. Don’t cry about it you won’t have to drive anyway.”

“Okay… so, what do I need to bring?”

It did not take long for Clint to pack a bag for your little trip. You always had the basic camping supplies like a tent stuffed into your car and as long as he didn’t mind sharing – which he didn’t – the two of you would be good with what you already had packed. When you called Nick to ask if the arrows where ready he told you that he already send Maria to deliver them to you. After getting them from Maria you packed everything into your car and left as soon as you both were buckled in. You were lucky that he did not mind listening to your music, while he took out his phone to read up on Wendigos. He told you what he managed to find from time to time until you stopped at a fast-food joint to get some lunch. Afterwards you kept on driving while Clint managed to fall asleep on the passenger seat. You just drove on until you reached your destination where you steered your beloved car onto a parking-lot and poked Clint in the side to wake him up.

“Gaaaah!! Goddamn, can’t you wake me up gently?!”

You laughed at him. “That’s the revenge for making me get up at 7 in the morning!” He looked around a bit.

“This doesn’t look like a National Forest…”

“Of course not genius, I need to change on the backseat. Then we’ll go and get information.”

“Are you not even a bit embarrassed about changing here?” You climb into the backseat while he asks you that and start to change your clothes.

“Do you think that I had any privacy while traveling with Sam and Dean? I got used to them seeing me half-naked, I can get used to it with you. But if you tell Tony about this I’ll throw you to the wolves next time.”

You didn't even notice that his eyes were glued to the rear-view mirror through which he watched you the entire time while you talked to him and got changed. You got back into the driver’s seat afterwards and opened the glove compartment from which you took a handgun and started to sort through the badges. Next to your official S.H.I.E.L.D. badge you had quite the collection of aliases that you used from time to time and this time you selected your FBI badge with the alias of ‘Caitlyn Matthews’. It was really the one you used the most, as people tended to trust the FBI.

“Okay while we’re in there call me Caitlyn.” He nodded, not even bothering to ask why you used an alias when you had an official S.H.I.E.L.D. badge. He was a spy himself after all.

“This is really the thing I hate the most about hunting. Getting people to tell you what they know. Some believe that they have gone crazy and refuse to talk about anything they saw. Others convince themselves that they saw nothing those are the hardest nuts to crack. But sometimes you have some luck and someone saw everything and already told the police they just couldn’t believe it. They are so happy when someone finally decides to listen and doesn’t call them crazy that you get anything you need out of them. Let’s hope we’re lucky.”

You were not lucky, of course. It took some time to track down the two eyewitnesses who managed to get away. They would never know just how much luck they had had to accomplish that.

After talking to the witnesses you made your way back to the car.

“I’ll change and afterwards we’ll go eat dinner and get a motel room or something. We don’t have much daytime left and we still have to go get some food and water for a few days. I refuse to camp 20 minutes into the forest. We’ll leave at sunrise, I hope you don’t mind a bit of walking. Oh and you still need to get your tattoo… I think I saw a tattoo parlor somewhere at the edge of the city when we came here. We can ask for one when we get dinner.”

You get back into the backseat to change into more comfortable clothes while he takes his place in the passenger seat. You climb into the driver’s seat with a relieved sigh and drive down the road in search for the next diner. It takes only a few minutes to locate one and get inside.

“And? Did you think about where you want your tattoo?” You ask him in-between bites of your Burger.

“You said it should be as hidden as possible… so I thought about getting it on the top side of my thigh… Should be hidden enough, right?”

“Should be. I know that Sam and Dean have theirs on their chests, but every demon and monster knows about them anyway so it doesn’t make much of a difference to them, but we can’t have someone as well-known as the Avengers running around with easily visible anti-possession tattoos.”

“Yeah I know what you mean… That makes undercover work a bit harder…”

The two of you took your time to eat before paying and getting directions to the tattoo parlor in the city. On the way there you managed to find a Motel with a vacancy. You had already passed one that was fully booked and the one you stopped at luckily had a double room for you which you paid for. You got your bags out of the car and put them into your room before moving on to get Clint his tattoo. At least he was not nervous about it. It was not very far so the two of you decided to walk the way. You sat down with him and showed the artist an image of the symbol that you took out of your journal.

“Okay… you got your tattoo, we have all the information we can get and it’s dark outside. I suggest we get our supplies and go to bed, I could fall asleep standing up right now…” You manage to get everything you need in a shop not far away from your Motel before you both drop into your beds to sleep.

The sound of your alarm wakes you early the next morning and you stretch yourself.

“I’ll take a shower, can you get us some breakfast downstairs?”

After you hear something that sounds like a grunted yes from him you take some clothes with you into the bathroom. While you are under the shower, Clint manages to get up and get some donuts and coffee for the two of you. As soon as you step out of the bathroom the smell of fresh coffee invades your nose. Clint has already finished his breakfast and takes his turn showering while you devour the rest of the donuts and the coffee. By the time you were done eating and had collected everything else, Clint came out of the shower, ready to leave. You put on some comfortable boots and took the bags and supplies to the car, while he returned the room key.

That had actually been 3 days ago.

Now you were still searching for the Wendigo, both of you armed with flare guns, a blowtorch and Clint with his bow and arrows, while you carried a big bag containing a tent and your supplies. You had been able to sleep peacefully thanks to the protection of Anasazi symbols, drawn on the ground in a circle around the camp, which both of you could draw by heart by now.

And finally you found something. Claw marks on the trees. Too high and too big to be from any local animals. You took out the map with which you had been traveling with during the last days and found your current location fast. There seemed to be nothing near that could be used by a Wendigo as a hiding place, but one of the park rangers had told you about some old caves a few miles away from your current location. It seemed as good a place to start as any so the both of you decided to head there. You managed to get to the caves by midday and used flashlights to navigate them.

You went first with a flashlight in one hand and a flare gun in another, while Clint followed you absolutely silent, with his bow in hand, to which he had added a special clip-on flashlight.

Luck seemed to be with you as the caves where mostly straight, without many junctions or you could have   
gotten lost down there. The first two caves had been very long but sadly empty and you were checking the third one by now. It would also be the last one for the day if you could not find the beast in there, as you were running out of daylight and it took some time to Monster-proof the campsite. You both stopped at the same moment, listening intently. It sounded like a woman, whimpering and asking for help. It was highly unlikely that after 5 days of being missing because of a Wendigo someone was still alive. Meaning it was most likely the monster himself, trying to bait you.

And bait you he would. You sign Clint to stay back and wait for his chance, to which he nods. Arrow ready he creeps to the side of the cave and waits while you slowly creep forward following the sound of the whimpers. Clint had to follow you after a bit to keep you within his sight since the cave was no longer completely straight. There were a lot of curves and bends until you came to a junction. Of course there had to be a junction with two possibilities.

Left or right? Which one should you follow?

You tried to listen to the whimper again but it had already stopped. Fucking intelligent bastard.

You thought about it for a second before signing Clint to take the right one while you would take the left.

“Remember that the arrows only slow him down, use the flares if you get the chance…” you remind him in a low whisper. Normally you wouldn’t leave a new hunter alone to go after a Wendigo but you were sure that Clint could take care of himself. He had lived through an alien invasion for Christ’s sake. He nodded and crept on into the right tunnel while you sneaked into the left.

It was way too silent for your taste. You were lucky enough that there had been no more forks on your way, but there was a bend to the left a bit down the cave. A sharp one. You crept up to it and pressed against the wall, exhaling slowly before moving around fast and coming face to face with…

A freaking dead end. Shit. You heard a shout from where you came that was clearly from a man.

Clint! Shit, shit, shit!

You started running back the way you came until you managed to get back to the junction. Apparently Clint had the same idea and was currently running away from one very pissed looking Wendigo with quite a lot of arrows sticking out of it. He was cursing up quite a storm while running away from the creature and as soon as he ran out of English curses continued swearing in Italian and repeating Russian curses that he had most likely learned from Natasha.

You managed to stop yourself before you ran into the junction and aimed your flare gun at Clint’s back.

“Hey ugly!” you shouted as soon as the Wendigo ran into your sight, chasing after the archer and the moment it turned around you fired your flare gun into right into its mouth, which had been wide open as he screamed at you.

You lowered your gun as you watched the bastard burn to ashes. Clint turned around when he noticed that the beast wasn’t following him anymore and jogged up to you to join you watching him burn to crisps.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. It cut my arm with those huge-ass claws, but I’ll live.”

“Good… have you found anything down there? I mean apart from a Wendigo turned porcupine?”

“I haven’t had the time to check the whole tunnel before it attacked me. Damn, I knew what was coming and still I froze for a moment.” You pat him on the back and smiled at him.

“Happens to everyone the first time, don’t worry about it. Let’s go check the rest of the tunnel, maybe a miracle happened and one of them survived this shit. You actually did better than I thought. What happened to using the flare gun though?” You hear him grumble something under his breath while you start walking down the right tunnel. “Sorry, didn’t catch that. What did you say?” you ask grinning. You actually heard what he said but it would be more fun if he had to repeat it louder.

“I said I missed! I know you told me it was fast and agile but he just evaded! Couldn’t evade the arrows though…”

You laugh silently.

“Don’t worry your secret is safe with me, Hawkeye!”

He smiles gratefully at you. He wouldn’t hear the end of it if Tony knew that he actually missed a target.

It took you another half an hour to get to the end of the tunnel where you found mostly bones and a few human remains that you did not bother looking at. It was disgusting but you had seen a lot worse in your life. So had Clint apparently. You noticed he was calm and quiet. Maybe a bit too quiet.

“Hey, you okay Birdy? Was the hunt not what you imagined?” He slowly shook his head.

“It’s so… different. It was awesome to read it when I thought it was all made up… To find out that there are really people out there who lived through that shit… And now to see for myself what kind of nightmares you faced. You earned my respect and trust with this. Should you ever find yourself in need of backup, call me.”

You shake your head and throw an arm over his shoulders.

“You know, I really like you birdy but that’s enough of a chick flick moment for me for the week. How about we get out of here, camp and get the hell back to New York tomorrow? We could raid some of Tony’s alcohol, he’s a billionaire I’m sure he won’t mind!”

Clint has to laugh at that, remembering something he always read in the books. He lays his arm around your waist while you make your way back, with a grin on both of your faces.

“Sounds like a plan to me… Bitch.”

“Jerk.”


	5. ...with Sam

The next morning was a quiet one. Natasha woke you up and after you took a shower and dressed yourself in your own clothes again the both of you left for breakfast. It didn’t surprise you that the only ones awake on the common floor were the three soldiers. Steve was preparing breakfast, while Sam and Bucky talked about something quietly. The two of them raised their heads to look at you when you enter with Natasha.

“Morning (y/n), slept well?”

“Yeah, thanks Sam. Oh wow, something smells delicious… Do you need any help Steve?”

You go up to him while Natasha sits down at the table after getting a cup of coffee for herself and you.

“No thanks (y/n). I’m almost done anyway.”

Natasha slides the cup of steaming liquid over to you as you sit down.

“Thanks Nat. So, everyone ready to get inked today?”

“Always. I actually already got one.”

Sam pulls up the right sleeve of his shirt to show you his right shoulder.

“Got it done as soon as I was assigned to the 58thRescue Squadron.”

“Nice one, soldier. At least someone here knows what he’s getting into then. I hope nobody here has a fear of needles.”

“We’ve been through worse than that.” Bucky throws in quietly.

“Yeah, sorry for that… I hope you’re not mad at me for telling you that the world is even worse than you already believed it to be.”

“How could we be mad at you for that? You kill those things for a living, we should actually thank you!” Sam laughs while Steve finishes with breakfast.

“There can’t be only bad things out there. Surely there are good creatures as well.”

“Still the optimist, even after what you heard yesterday? Man, sometimes I wish I could see things your way for a bit.”

Sam gets up to get some plates and cutlery while Steve dishes up a huge amount of pancakes and eggs.

“Well they are not all bad.” You start while everyone gets some food. “The Halo Patrol is not all bad – though most are – and the King of rotten can actually be reasoned with… Not a trait found very often in demons…”

While you and Natasha continued to eat the soldiers had stopped and just stared at you.

“I can see it in your eyes… where did I lose you with that sentence?”

“I think I know what you mean, I just don’t know if I can really believe it…”

“That made any sense to you? The only thing I understood was ‘demons’. Buck did you get that or am I the only one?”

After Bucky shakes his head slowly you decide to explain.

“Well the Halo Patrol would be Angels and the King of rotten is the King of Hell. I thought that would be quite clear.”

“Maybe for you but while I’m really confused by the fact that you know the King of Hell I think the Angel-thing threw Steve and Bucky for a loop. I actually figured that if demons are a thing angels are one too.”

“Believe me, they are a thing and most are feathered dicks.”

“Language!”

You looked at a blushing Steve as if he had grown a second head, before starting to laugh your ass off.

“….Did you really just say language? I can’t believe it. I’m actually one of the best behaved hunters you’ll ever meet! Most swear worse than a sailor and I get a ‘language’ from Captain America, oh this is golden!”

By now Steve's blush got even worse and he and shoveled food into his mouth to have an excuse for keeping quiet. You managed to calm down again when Sam piped up again.

“And here I thought those were the good guys. What’s so bad about them?”

It actually took you a moment to think about how to word it correctly without offending the soldiers because after all, angels were heaven’s soldiers.

“Well… imagine the following: A huge number of soldiers who have been bred only to follow orders and nothing else. They always just follow them without questioning anything. One day, the highest being – in this case God – just stops talking to them. No more orders from him so they turn to the next best guys which just happened to be Michael and Raphael, the Archangels who still resided in heaven at the time. Now throw Lucifer who was freed of his cage a few years ago into the mix to start the apocalypse. Long story short: crisis averted with Michael and Lucifer stuck in the cage. Now there is only Raphael and Castiel, a powerful angel still faithful to god. All the mindless drones flock to one of two banners, even though Castiel never wanted a fight. What do you get? A civil war in heaven. A few more things happened after that, one of them being Raphael dying and now it is chaos. They want to follow orders, never had any free will and most are simply unable to cope with the responsibility of it. All of this would be bad if we were talking about a human army but angels are as far away from human as it gets. Some of them are more powerful than you can imagine and that makes them so dangerous. That and that they always believe to work for the ‘greater good’, no matter how many innocents are slaughtered for it.”

Well that had been quite the speech. You really hoped you had not offended anyone by calling soldiers mindless drones but they did not look offended to you. They actually all seemed to be thinking very hard about something, while finishing their breakfast.

“How is that possible? How could nobody notice that there was an apocalypse in the making?”

“You couldn’t have noticed anyway Steve. You were only defrosted almost 2 years later. We stopped a lot of shi- I mean stuff… from happening and if it’s okay with you I’d rather not talk about that.”

“Of course, I’m sorry (y/n). I hope you don’t mind if I ask you one more question though…”

“Fire away, Cap.”

“I always thought that there were four Archangels… What happened to the last one?”

“Gabriel got out long before any of that happened. He loved his father and his older brothers dearly and to watch them tear each other apart… he simply couldn’t do that and I understand him leaving. From what I know there are actually not a lot of hunters out there who know of angels, or even believe in them. It’s hard to believe when you are confronted with nightmares every day of your live.”

Everyone had been done eating a while ago and now that you were done talking you clapped your hands together loudly.

“Enough of the serious and depressing talk! I need to go and get my stuff, Tony promised me a place to stay!”

You looked at Nat and after you asked her where he was – it was nearly 10 by now after all – she shrugged.

“Most likely still sleeping off his drinks.”

You took out your phone when you got a message.

“Maria managed to get a tattoo artist who will arrive in 2 hours. Guess you’re all still free until then.”

You started to collect the plates to start on the dishes. When Steve started to help you, you simply snatched the plates back from him.

“You already cooked for us, I’ll handle the dishes. Go play!”

You told him with a big smile on your face.

“Thanks (y/n). You guys want to hit the gym?”

Sam and Bucky followed Steve out just when Clint, Thor and Loki entered the kitchen and greeted you. Clint sat down near you and stared at you, waiting until you remembered your promise. Well so much for being done with the depressing talk…

You fixed them some breakfast as well while telling Clint the story he wanted to hear. Thor and Loki joined in, listening to you talk while you did the dishes.

Storytime had to be cut short due to the tattoo artist arriving. Tony had somehow managed to stumble out of bed with a massive hangover just a few minutes prior to the man being announced by J.A.R.V.I.S.

Hawkeye luckily stopped pouting when you promised him that there would be a continuation of the story when you found the time for it and asked him to get Sam, Steve and Bucky from the gym and tell them to shower.

He nodded and left for a bit while the artist introduced himself to you and asked where he could work. Tony showed him to a place while Thor followed, quite interested in the machine he would be using to put the symbol onto his skin.

As soon as you finished with cleaning up the kitchen you followed them with a picture of the anti-possession symbol that you had drawn while telling Clint your story.

Natasha, who had remained with you through the story telling as well, actually sat down to get her tattoo done first. She had decided to get it in the same place as you, so that it could be easily hidden.

The tattoo artist started right away. In the meantime the Soldiers had finished with cleaning up and rejoined everyone else.

You noticed how Tony tried to find an excuse to get away but someone always stopped him. It seemed like he really didn’t want to be on the other side of that needle but it was necessary.

Steve looked a little nervous at first but calmed down as soon as the needle pricked him for the first time. He commented on how he thought that it would at least hurt a bit prompting Sam to grumble something about Super Soldiers.

Everything went down without a hitch until Tony was the last one. Even Thor and Loki had decided to get the tattoo regardless of the fact that you did not know if demons could even possess Asgardians. You really didn’t want to try that though… A normal demon was bad but Thor possessed by a demon?

Yeah.

No, thanks.

You got Tony a beer from the fridge to hopefully calm him down a bit.

“Thanks babe, but I don’t think that’s going to work…”

He downed the beer anyway before sitting down.

“We could always ask Dr. Banner for some sedatives and knock you out if you’re too much of a girl for this Tony.”

You cheekily grin at him while he glares back at you.

“I really liked you yesterday, now I’m not so sure anymore.”

“Awww… you break my heart… Would you like it more if I punched Loki again?”

“While it would not get me out of this it would be quite funny to watch Reindeer Games going down again…”

“I already punched him once. Wouldn’t be really fair to him if I treated him worse than the first Loki who annoyed me right?”

There was a slight pause at that. Tony apparently concentrated on talking to you and didn’t even realize that the tattoo artist had already started.

“Come again? There are two of them?”

“What are you talking about Midgardian? There is only one Loki, God of Mischief and Lies, and that is me.”

Loki was now standing in front of you, he had his arms folded in front of his chest and looked down on you.

“Yeah about that… I will explain it later okay? It’s not really common knowledge and it should really remain that way. I was just trying to distract Tony who is by the way not even crying like a girl while getting inked!”

You slowly clapped for him a few times to mock him even more, earning yourself another glare from him. Loki gave you a look that clearly stated that you were not done talking about this.

“Don’t worry though, he is a friend of mine now.”

As soon as the artist was finished with Tony you thanked him, to which he nodded and left. He had already be paid by S.H.I.E.L.D. because Tony absolutely refused to pay for something he never wanted to begin with. Loki was just about to ask you what you had meant earlier when J.A.R.V.I.S. told them that Fury had arrived on the floor.

He walked into the room with an even bigger scowl on his face than usual.

“A new victim was found this morning. No eyes again. You need to get there now, they will have the corpses ready for you.”

“Of course Nick, thanks. I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

He left with a nod to you, leaving the room in total silence.

“Shit.”

You sighed and ran a hand through your hair. Another one. That had been the fifth victim in 8 days. You really thought you had a bit more time.

“Sorry guys but I have to get this before we have another corpse on our hands…”

You sat down and took a deep breath.

“No eyes. That’s what we got for the last four victims as well. The last time I saw something like that it was a ‘Bloody Mary’ and I guess this is another one.”

“Bloody Mary? You mean like the legend that you get killed by a woman after saying ‘Bloody Mary’ three times into the mirror?” Clint asked.

“Just like that. A bloody Mary is a ghost bound to a mirror who most of the time wants to get revenge on those who killed her. When a ghost stays in this world for too long and can’t move on it just goes crazy and starts attacking people, so we need to get her to move on. That means either salting and burning her remains or torching the object she is bound to… Both would put her spirit to rest. I really don’t have the time to explain every detail on ghosts right now, simply too much lore and every ghost is different. I really have to admit though that I can’t decide who to take with me… It’s hopefully a salt and burn and that would mean we have to dig up a grave. Anyone here who feels queasy with that?”

Tony is actually the only one who raises his hand at that.

“Count me out of that. I know I did some weird stuff while drunk but I’m not going to dig up a grave. Like I said yesterday, we have two super spies, two super soldiers and two gods to choose from, they should get the job done fast.”

This earns him a glare from Sam.

“You pass me over for giggles don’t you?”

“I don’t know what you mean! I only know that I can hear my lab calling me.”

He says before hurrying out of the room. Sam manages to evade this time before Steve can pat him on the back.

“Not cool man!”

You have to laugh at the scene.

“Okay, now I know who to take. What do you say Sam? Let’s show them you don’t need to be a super soldier to get things done?”

He jumps up at once.

“Hell yeah!”

He was ready to go as soon as you told him that you had everything you needed in your car. You just needed to stop at the hotel to gather up the rest of your things and then you were good to go after the bitch.

“So give me the facts. What do I need to know about ghosts?” he asked while you walked down to your car for the short trip to the hotel.

“Ghosts can be as different from each other as people… They are normally pale and due to a missing physical body somewhat transparent… and smoky sometimes. The usual arms against ghosts are salt and iron. We’re going in with shotguns loaded with salt-filled cartridges and iron crowbars as soon as we know where to find the bitch. If it’s a salt and burn we need shovels and a lot of time to dig up the grave. Afterwards we cover the remains in salt and gas and set them on fire. I have everything we need in my trunk. The salt and iron will force the ghost to disappear for a bit, but it won’t kill it. In case of a real Bloody Mary we are taking mirrors.”

“Mirrors? Why those?”

“Bloody Mary’s kill those who have done wrong in their lives when they look into a mirror. If she sees her own reflection she will be forced to destroy herself because she also took some lives.”

“Damn that sounds really awesome…”

You laugh while you stop at the hotel.

“Let’s see how awesome you think it is when you see it yourself! You can wait in the car if you want to, I just need to change into something more official looking, get my bag and return the key.”

He nods and you hurry off to your room.

A few minutes later you throw the bag containing your clothes onto the backseat and get in to drive on.

“Well damn. You’re right, that looks ‘official’. You look like a real S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent now!”

“Oh shut up, I am a real S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent… Okay not really but at least they pay me. It’s more of a FBI disguise. Impersonating an FBI Agent is usually the easiest way to get information. Not everyone trusts S.H.I.E.L.D. sadly. It would be a lot easier for me if I could just use my S.H.I.E.L.D. badge, but they don’t so I’m improvising.”

“You sound a bit like a spy…”

“I’m no more of a spy than you are. I just have…. Creative ways to get what I want? You could call it that I guess.”

The both of you laugh together. Now you were really glad that you had picked Sam to go with you he was good company.

“I forgot to ask: where are we going?”

“For now to get information. I need to check the corpses and autopsy reports first, they are waiting at a morgue in Queens for us, Nick already arranged for everything. As soon as Nick sends me the police reports we need to find out if there is anything the victims have in common and a trip to the local library will help out with the research. With the police reports we should be able to tell if it was really a Bloody Mary or something else. No matter what kind of ghost it is we need to find out who it is and where they are buried. If they were cremated it’s a little more tricky. That means that the ghost is bound to an object. That can be really any object, they just had to have a strong connection to it when they were alive.”

“Okay… how strong? Give me an example.”

“If we take the others as an example… it would most likely be his bow for Clint or his Iron Man suits for Tony. You get the picture?”

“I think so. So it can be any object that is special to them?”

“Yeah… It could be a pen if it was important enough to them. Makes it really hard sometimes to find the object.”

“Let’s hope we’re lucky and we don’t have to search. Anyway, what can ghosts do?”

“Ah yeah the powers. The most common ones are teleportation, thermokinesis, invisibility and abnormal strength and speed. They also disrupt anything electronic near them. There are some more in very rare cases, but that’s the usual. You can usually find a ghost with an EMF meter, it’s not always reliable though as there are a lot of things nowadays that give of electromagnetic fields. If there is a power cable nearby an EMF meter is all but useless. The best first sign is usually the extreme drop in temperature. It gets so cold that you can see your breath like it’s the middle of winter and glass tends to freeze up. Wait, I forgot the telekinesis… Powerful ghosts can throw people through the room just by looking at them while weaker ones just tend to throw little objects at you. There was actually a time were a vengeful spirit caught me and I crashed into the wall hard enough to break a rib.”

“Damn, I really hope it’s not that strong… At least I’m heavier than you. If the bitch is able to throw someone it’s more likely to be you.”

You stick out your tongue at him playfully in retaliation.

You parked your car in front of the morgue and got inside with Sam.

“I hope you don’t have a weak stomach soldier, don’t want you to lose your breakfast again.”

Immediately upon entering the two of you are greeted by a young woman in a lab coat.

“You must be from S.H.I.E.L.D. right? I was told that you were coming!”

After you showed her your badge she brought you to a room in the back where she already prepared the bodies to show them to you.

“Cause of Death?”

“Blood loss. Those poor people…”

She reveals the victims heads one after another for you.

“All of them have no eyes, almost no other signs of injury aside from a broken wrist on the newest victim.”

Sam actually tries to pay attention but was a bit distracted by the missing eyes. You thought something like this would happen, it was always something else to actually see it, even if you were a veteran like him.

“May I see your autopsy reports?” you ask her nicely and she hurries to get them for you. In the meantime you go back to the victims and take a closer look at the eye-sockets.

“I don’t think we have a Bloody Mary on our hands Sam… Their victims start to bleed from the eyes and have a skull full of blood and liquefied eyes…” You point into the sockets where signs of cuts are left.

“Looks like someone cut them out… This could actually be a normal serial killer… Let’s look into it some more though, my gut instinct tells me this is a case for me.”

“We can do whatever you want if you stop poking the eye-sockets of dead people! Oh damn this is so disgusting…”

Mere seconds before the woman comes back into the room you take a step back from the corpses and turn to Sam as if you had been talking with him the whole time.

“Oh thank you!”

You smile at her and take the reports. You look through them but can’t find anything else interesting apart from the fact that the eyes had really been cut out.

With a smile you thank her again and leave with Sam at your side. A look onto your cellphone showed a mail from Nick stating that he had arranged for you to get a look at the police reports at the local police station which was only a few miles down the road.

“I should have come here earlier. Nicks help makes everything so easy… We can officially take a look at the police reports down at the station.” You tell him while climbing into the driver’s seat.

“I think this is actually the first time I don’t have to lie to get them…”

“…In the morgue… How could you just poke around the victims there? Don’t you get sick or anything?”

“Not really anymore. I stopped getting sick after decapitating my first vampire I guess… It’s a hunter’s life after all, I can’t afford getting sick by something as small as victims with missing eyes.”

“Okay… well if I see something like that never again it’s still too early.”

“Guess you’re more used to gunshot wounds?”

“I would have been a bad soldier if I wasn’t, wouldn’t I?”

“I guess… those are not really my thing though. Haven’t seen many gunshot wounds yet and I hope I don’t have to dig out a bullet of someone ever again. That was disgusting!”

Sam laughs and shakes his head slightly.

“You are crazy, you know that?”

“Of course I do soldier. It’s in the job description.”

You arrive at the station where you park your car a few minutes later. The two of you head inside and one of the cops guides you to a small room where the files are already waiting for you. The only interesting information that you can get out of them is that they were all murdered not more than a few miles away from each other. The police found no fingerprints, no weapon or any other traces of a culprit. As soon as you finished reading through the last report you set it down and sigh.

“I could really use a burger and some coffee right about now.”

“You’re lucky you didn’t tell me that right after the morgue or I really would have lost my breakfast. Let’s grab a bite.”

Subsequently to returning the files and leaving you make your way to the next diner to get something to eat and discuss your next move.

To you research was a necessary evil. It had to be done, you couldn’t do anything about it. It took 2 hours of research in the local library before Sam found something that resembled your current case.

“Look at this ‘Rhys and Faith Wallace – serial killers killed in accident’. Sounds good right? According to this article they were killed in a crash with a drunk driver. They were responsible for nearly 20 murders?! How did the police not catch them earlier? Are they sleeping at work?”

“A lot to do with not enough resources I guess, what else does it say?”

“The victims were always attractive and around their own age, they cut their eyes out. After examining the evidence again and comparing them to the twins they found out that Rhys only killed men while Faith murdered women…. And… Oh damn, you’re not going to like this: They were cremated.”

“Fuck.” You swore as quietly as possible. “Does it mention anything of their belongings? Something they had with them?”

“Let me see…. Yes, apparently they each had a knife with them which were locked away as the murder weapons.”

“Oh this is bad…”

“Why is that bad? That means that we know that they are at the police station.”

“I know that but how do you want to get them? They are evidence. We can’t just walk inside and tell them that we need those knives to burn them to stop ghosts from murdering innocents… They’ll throw us into an asylum faster than we could say ‘it was a joke’.”

“I see your point… What do you suggest we do?”

“It’s harder now that we were officially in the police station… If I had been there impersonating an FBI Agent I would have used a lie to get to see the evidence and swiped it while no one was looking… I know a few spells to help with hunting but nothing that could help us here… We could go in and ask nicely?”

“…You’re kidding me, right?”

“Of course I am. We could also ask Nick if he can get those knifes out but I’d hate bothering Nick again… he already helped out a lot on this case…”

“Someone died this morning and if we don’t stop them there will be new victims soon.”

“….Calling Nick it is!” you say while already dialing his number. A short discussion with him later you are relieved to hear that he has managed to get the evidence released to S.H.I.E.L.D.

“Okay now we only need to get inside, get the two knives and get out again and to as safe a place as possible to melt them without being attacked. Oh who am I kidding? The second we touch them they will try to cut our eyes out. We need to wait for the night when there are not many people at the station and as soon as we are inside place an anonymous call for something big so that – hopefully – almost everyone leaves…. As a matter of fact I had worse.”

“So you are suggesting we walk into a police station with crowbars, a ton of salt, shotguns and gas to melt knives?”

“Damn it you’re right, they won’t melt with just a bit of gas…”

“That wasn’t really my point you know?”

“Oh I got an idea! We break into the morgue, they got a furnace for cremation, that should be hot enough!”

“Are you even listening to me?”

“Of course I am. We obviously can’t take the shotguns or crowbars, but I still have a few knives made of iron, we can use those, they are easier to hide. I’ll also take a handbag with me were we’ll put a packet of salt, if anybody asks we were shopping and needed some salt. That’s easy enough. The hard part is to get them outside without anyone getting killed….”

“Why don’t we just pull the fire alarm?”

“Awesome! I’ll go inside and get the knives while you trigger the fire alarm. If they come after us – which they will – we fight them off. We can hide the shotguns and crowbars in the alley next to the station and pick them up on the way. We’ll need to use back-alleys anyway… But we still have to wait until it is dark outside… just a few more hours. Sounds like a plan?”

“Let’s do this!”

Waiting was always the hardest part. Not to know if they were already out there again and killing someone while you had to sit on your asses was really bad.

You had sat down at a café in viewing distance of the police station so that you would notice it if anything unusual happened. In the meantime you chatted with Sam about everything you could think of. You asked him about his missions, how he got to know Steve and the others, his hobbies, really anything and he did the same to you.

Waiting time like this was always nice to get to know each other better. A look onto your clock told you that it was nearly 1 in the morning. While the streets where not empty – it was New York they were never really empty – it was empty enough that you could get started. You started with going to your car and depositing a shotgun with rock salt cartridges and a crowbar for each of you in the alley next to the station so that it would be easy for you to grab them while running but they couldn’t be seen right away if someone happened to pass by.

“Well good luck to you. They’ll most likely come after me as I will be carrying those knives so try to keep them at bay, okay?”

“You can count on me.”

“Good to know!” You grin at him before starting with your plan.

The plan went off without a hitch at first but after you went down the second alley from the station on your way to the morgue, things started to go downhill fast.

Apparently the two of them were pretty good with their telekinesis. Good enough to throw you into a dumpster and Sam against a wall. You managed to get both of them with one shot before you both took off again, running in the direction of the morgue.

With only one close call on the way – Rhys had decided to throw you head first into a wall but Sam managed to catch you before your head split open like a ripe melon on the stone – you managed to get to the morgue’s back door. You took out some lock picks and opened the door as fast as possible. During the time Sam managed to hold them of using up his last cartridges. He swore at the same time as you cheered for the open door. You handed him the knives.

“Go and burn them, I’ll cover you!”

He nodded and sprinted down the hall with you following him and shooting Rhys and Faith whenever they popped up again. When you reached the room with the furnace one of them managed to liberate the shotgun from your hands so you switched to the crowbar and swung at them when they came near you or Sam.

By now the two of them were coming for you with their knives to cut your eyes out and it took everything you had to dodge and parry their blows.

You had already taking more than just a few cuts to your arms and a shallow one to your cheek that were oozing blood with every movement but you couldn’t afford to stop now.

“Got it!” you heard Sam cheer behind you when he finally got the furnace going and threw the knives inside. He turned around in time to hear the two spirits scream and burn out.

You sighed loudly, clearly relieved.

“Glad that that is over. So what do you say about your first hunt?”

He gives you a wide smile.

“The light show was awesome! Let’s do that again!”


	6. ...with Natasha

Your wakeup call the next morning was not a very quiet one. You woke up when you heard a noise that you couldn’t quite place. Automatically your hand wandered to the gun hidden beneath your pillow and your eyes stayed closed as if you were still sleeping. There was a loud clang and someone landed in your room. You didn’t even hesitate before jumping up and shooting the intruder.

His eyes widened as he saw you jumping up from your bed and luckily he was fast enough to let himself drop backwards onto the ground, evading your shot that would have gotten him in the shoulder.

Clint released a long sigh of relief.

“Damn, do you want to kill me?”

“Birdy?! What the fuck was that?! What are you doing here?!” you shouted at him. By now Natasha had gotten into your room and barged in through the now broken door, guns drawn. She looked at Clint on the floor for a moment who grinned and waved at her without getting up. A look to the ceiling told her that he had gotten here through the vents again and somehow fell down. She sighed and lowered her weapons, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Clint, what were you doing in the vents above her room? I thought we talked about the peeping through the vents…”

“You did what?!” You screamed with a bright red face while Clint had managed to get up.

“No! I didn’t spy on you or anything! I promise!” He waved his hands around frantically trying to get his point across. “I just wanted to see if you were up yet! Or wake you if you were still asleep!”

“How is that not spying on me?” By now you had your arms crossed in front of your chest as well and raised an eyebrow at Clint.

“I was just taking a look!” He still tried to defend himself.

“And why couldn’t you just ask J.A.R.V.I.S.? Or used the door?”

“Because that’s boring! And the vents are so much faster!”

“Clint you realize that you should shut up now before you dig an even deeper grave for yourself, do you?” Natasha decided to help him out a bit. As funny as watching the scene was for her you still had a gun in your hand and she didn’t want Clint shot. Clint sighed as you shot him a glare.

“Alright! I’m sorry, I won’t do it again…” You could hear in his voice that he didn’t mean any of it and that the sentence was probably rehearsed for events like this but since he saw nothing but you asleep and you already tried to shoot him you decided to forgive him this time.

“Okay. I forgive you. But if you do it again I won’t miss.” You turned around to gather your clothes to take a shower and get dressed. “Oh and you’re buying me breakfast for that if you still want your story.” He only nodded while you left for the bathroom. You looked at Natasha for a moment who looked ready to smack Clint for that stunt and you guessed that it wouldn’t be the first time.

A few minutes later you were ready to go and Clint and Natasha were already waiting for you to leave for breakfast. Steve had decided to join you as well. You walked to a nice little café only a few minutes away from the tower and ordered some breakfast. Instead of telling your story however you decided to ask Natasha and Steve about their missions just to make Clint wait as a little revenge.

He caught on fast and sighed as he leaned back in his chair. Not that he could do anything about it, he would have to be patient for now.

By the time that they had told you about everything that happened when they met Bucky for the first time Clint was on the edge of his seat and staring intensely at you. After they finished their story you decided to take pity on him and tell the tale he wanted to hear.

They all listened intently but you knew that you could not waste the whole day talking to them. You still needed to work on the case. While there was not much to go on right now you were sure that there was something that Nick had overlooked that could give you the hint to what you were going after that you needed.

After talking for almost an hour you promised them that you would tell them the rest another time.

“That all sounded extremely interesting. And extremely dangerous. How did you even get into those situations?” Steve asked after you finished the story for now. Clint piped in before you could answer.

“You should read the books, Cap.” You groaned. “That way you get the story from the beginning… I think I still have them somewhere in my room…” Clint promised to search for them and lend them to Steve while Natasha glanced at you sympathetically.

“It must be weird to have your live written down like that…”

“Believe me it is. And the fans are even weirder…” Natasha nodded slightly.

“Oh I understand. Did you know that there are Avengers Conventions? Clint dragged me to one just for fun. There were so many people dressed up like us…”

“I know, weird right? And let me guess, you even got compliments for your ‘extremely well made cosplay’?”

“I think those were the exact words…” You laughed together before you stood up. “Alright, I need to work on the case. See if Nick missed anything that will help me find out what I’m going after…” You didn’t bother paying, after all your breakfast was on Clint.

“Mind some company? Maybe I can help you.” Natasha asked while she got up as well.

“Be my guest. A second pair of eyes never hurts.” The two of you waved the guys goodbye before leaving. “Do you mind making a little detour? I still need to get my stuff from the hotel.”

“I don’t mind. Let’s go.” On your way you both started to talk about the problems you had being the only woman on the team and how ignorant some of the guys could be sometimes. Especially Tony.

You had bonded quickly with Natasha and as soon as you arrived back at the tower the two of you went back to her guest room to collect the rest of your gear. J.A.R.V.I.S. had notified you that the floor beneath hers had been prepared for your use. You thanked him and Natasha and went down to unload your stuff and have another look at the file. You both sat down in the sitting room and you spread the contents of the file on the table.

“Just point out everything that seems odd to you.” Natasha nodded and took her time to read over all of the information but apart from people going missing there was not much.

“It looks like simple missing person reports to me… The victims don’t have anything in common and have going missing all over New York. Why did the Director call you in for this?”

“He actually called me in to teach you guys and this was just the thing to start with… I know a lot of people go missing but from my experience it’s rarely not up my alley. They just stay missing because the local police don’t know how to handle it. It’s just like all that Alien stuff. Those that don’t know anything about it are stumped.”

You both raised your heads from the file as the elevator rang the arrival of someone on your floor. Fury walked over to the two of you with a flash drive in his hand.

“We have another victim.” He glared even worse than normally. In an instant the both of you knew he was really pissed off by this thing. “He dared to take one of our new recruits. We have a video from the moment he’s been taken, I hope you can identify it.” He handed you the flash drive and turned to leave again. “Nobody takes our people without paying the price.” He left you and Natasha alone again and you hurried to get your laptop from your bedroom.

As soon as you got back into the sitting room you sat it down on the table, waiting for it to boot impatiently.

“You should really get a new one, this is taking ages…” Natasha complained.

“Sorry but I’ll only replace it if it stops working. I’m not wasting money on something that works just fine.” As soon as it was ready you plugged in the flash drive and opened the video file on it.

You watched as the man on the screen got taken. His opponent seemed to be a tall man, who had made sure to have as much skin covered as possible. The only weird thing about it was that the recruit went limp as soon as the other man touched him. You rewound the video to watch the scene again in slow motion and this time you made sure to watch the man as close as possible.

Natasha stopped the video as soon as the man touched the recruit.

“Do you see that?” She really had sharp eyes because you could barely see what she meant.

“Yeah… He’s glowing… Give me a second, I know those…” You closed your eyes and took a moment to rummage around in your head where you had seen this before. Your eyes shot open as soon as you remembered.

“Oh shit.” You cursed quietly.

“Do you know what it is?” You nodded in response.

“Yeah I do. It’s a Djinn.” You quickly gathered the file again and asked Natasha to gather everyone. You would have to explain it to them and chose your backup but before that you still had to go and get something. You told her that you would be back in an hour and that you would meet in the common room.

Almost exactly an hour later you arrived in the common room where everyone minus Bruce and Tony who were still working in the lab was waiting for you.

“Hey guys, I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long.”

“You’re finally going to tell us what this thing is? Tasha didn’t say anything…” Clint pouted.

“Yes I’ll finally tell you what it is.” You sat down and placed a little bag next to you. “I just had to get a few things first. Alright what you need to know is that there were people taken all over New York. I know that’s not really unusual but the way they were taken is.” You switched on the TV. “J.A.R.V.I.S. could you play the video?”

“Of course Miss (y/n).” The AI started the video and everyone watched as the recruit got taken.

“He’s one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new recruits, I don’t think I’ve got to tell you what that means.”

“Fury’s got to be pissed…” Sam mumbled.

“Oh he’s beyond pissed. Now you saw that he didn’t have any time to fight back. One touch is all it takes. What you’re seeing here is a Djinn.”

“Djinn? Are you talking about those free me and you get three wishes things?” Sam asked.

“They’re powerful but if they grant your wish you’re as good as dead.” That got everyone’s attention again as some of them had been deep in thought about what they had heard about the creatures.

“What do you mean?”

“Well… They don’t really grant wishes. What you saw on the video, the glowing touch, that’s a Djinn using his power. They trap you in an ultra-realistic hallucination where you live your deepest dreams and desires while they feed on your blood. They keep their victims alive as long as possible and the hallucinations are so stretched out that you can live a lifetime in them before you die in the real world. They also seem to know about everything a person longs for. If that wasn’t bad enough they got the usual set of powers added to that: super strength, speed and agility. At least they are easy to spot as their whole bodies are covered in tattoos and as you saw on the video their hands glow blue when they use their powers. I think that was everything… Did I miss something?”

“You forgot to explain how to kill them.”

“Ah of course, thanks Nat.” You opened the bag you had placed next to your seat and pulled out three items. The first two were almost identical gleaming knives. “Those are silver. I usually just have one but on my way I saw one at a pawnbroker’s place so I bought it.” You also placed a jar with a red liquid inside on the table. “And that’s lamb’s blood. From what I know Djinns can only be killed by a silver knife dipped in lamb’s blood. Now the only thing we need to do is find them, which means there will be quite a bit of legwork. Djinn prefer to live in ruins, the bigger the better, so we’ll have to search for them. Luckily there aren’t many ruins not open to the public around here, we should start with those.”

“Alright… And who will you be taking with you?” Clint asked curiously.

“Well, I was thinking since Natasha is the one who found the most important clue she should be the one to come with me. Only if you want to though, I can do the legwork by myself as well and give you a call when I find something.”

“I’ll come with you. We shouldn’t split up, that thing catching us by surprise could be our last mistake.”

Clint groaned in disappointment about not being picked but quickly got over it. After all you were at the tower to teach all of them and that meant that he would get his turn.

“Alright Ladies, have fun!” Clint waved before leaving to go to the gym, accompanied by Steve, Bucky and Sam. Thor seemed to look a little disappointed as well while Loki just left without a word. You clapped the tall man slightly on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it Big guy, I’ll try to find something for you soon.” He gave her a bright smile before answering.

“I’m looking forward to it. You will have to tell me everything about your fight with those creatures as soon as you return!”

“I will, I promise!” Satisfied with your answer Thor left for the kitchen to get himself a snack. You turned back to Natasha and handed her one of the knives after unscrewing the lid of the jar and dipping them both into the blood. “That should be enough… I’ll put the jar into the trunk just to be safe.” You carefully screwed the lid back on and waited for the blood on the knife to dry a bit.

“So how do you want to do this?” You asked Natasha while holding the knife to dry. You didn’t really want lamb’s blood on your clothes after all. Maybe this time you could actually manage to keep your clothes intact. It was not very likely but a girl could hope.

“You said the bigger the better, right? J.A.R.V.I.S. could you please make us a list of abandoned buildings and ruins in and around the city? And sort them by size, biggest first.”

“At once, Miss Romanoff.” There was a few seconds pause before he replied again. “The list has been send to your mobile phone, do you need anything else?”

“No thanks. That would be all.” She took out her phone to take a look at the list. “Quite the long one… We better get started if we want to get anything done.” You nodded and put the knife into a sheath that you had strapped to your belt and covered it up with your shirt afterwards.

“Alright. I’ll drive, just point the way.”

A few hours later the sun was setting and the two of you were a little exhausted. You had barely searched two ruins and even got in trouble for stepping foot on the second one. Luckily Natasha had absolutely no problem talking her way out of it after the guard recognized her as an Avenger and turned out to be a huge fan. You stopped for dinner at a somewhat nice diner and got yourself a bacon cheeseburger. Sometimes you really hated Dean for getting you into those heart-attacks in a bun but they were simply delicious.

“So… is your job always like this?” You hurried to swallow down your food before answering.

“It actually depends on what you’re hunting. Sometimes it means that you have to hike out into the woods, exorcize a demon, get rid of a ghost or – like today – to search through every fucking ruin in New York City.” You slightly groaned the last part. “But to answer your question: No it’s not always like this. The salt and burn is the most common case. Spirits often refuse to go on into the afterlife. Doesn’t matter where they’re going, heaven or hell but if they have a lingering attachment to this world that is strong enough they stay until they drive themselves crazy and start attacking people.”

“What kind of attachment could those be?”

“Everything that has a strong feeling behind it really… I’ve had ghosts who wanted revenge – that’s the most common type – who regretted things they’ve done, who refused to leave a loved one alone… That is a long and not very happy list.” You managed a forced smile at the end.

“So you’ve seen a lot more than a girl your age should have.” You tried not to choke on your drink as you had to laugh at that.

“Okay, first: I’m not much younger than you so please don’t call me girl, makes you seem old… Second: I read your file. That coming from you? I’m lucky not to have a drinking problem I guess.” You tried to joke it off but Natasha saw through it within a second. She noticed that you were telling the truth about the drinking and tried to think about how you dealt with the situations you had been in for your whole life. It did not take her long to notice that you joked it off. Where she herself tried to be cold and unfeeling you kept your humor. Natasha smiled slightly at you.

“I guess you are.” The both of you finished your food and stayed a few minutes longer to relax. The sun had almost set completely but you still wanted to get one more ruin done today.

“What’s the next one on the list?” You asked her after finishing your drink.

“North Brother Island.”

“Never heard of it… wait, Island? Does that mean we’ll have to get a boat? Ugh… I hate boat rides…”

“Yes, we’ll have to get a boat. There is nowhere for a Quinjet to land if we would take one. Let me guess: You get seasick?” You shuddered slightly at the thought of being on a boat again.

“Let’s just say I met a Rusalka who was not very happy to discover that I was not really a man when she tried to drown me.”

“Rusalka? You were the bait?”

“I was alone, I had to be the bait. I was not going to get a random guy of the street to be my bait and since they only go for men I had to disguise myself a bit. And a Rusalka is a female water spirit. Kind of like the old mermaid tales. They like to drown men. She was really not happy with me.” You laughed out loud as you remembered her face when the wig slipped off. “She nearly got me, managed to kill her just in time. On that day I really lost my love of water.” Natasha nodded understandingly after listening to the story.

“Understandable. At least you’re not disguised as a man right now so if there are any they should leave us alone.”

“True, true. But if one gets me I’ll trust you to off it!”

“Anytime.”

It took you another hour to get to the port across from the island and get a boat. Luckily the boat ride was a silent one even if it was a little bumpy. You released a sigh of relief as your feet touched solid ground again, making Natasha laugh quietly. By now it was dark outside but an almost full moon illuminated the Island. Nonetheless you took out your flashlight for the inside parts of the ruin. On the first glance everything seemed silent enough but you knew that the silence could be misleading. After all someone who is trapped in a dream doesn’t scream.

By now the two of you had gotten a small routine for searching. You went apart a bit, far enough that you could search efficiently but close enough together that you could still see each other and help out if something happened.

You motioned for Natasha to come over to you as you suddenly remembered some crucial information that you had forgiven about before.

“What is it?” She whispered while still keeping an eye out for any sign of the Djinn’s.

“I forgot to tell you something. It’s important. If the Djinn’s manage to catch us there is only one way to get out of the dream…”

“And you’re only telling me that now?” She looked just a little annoyed but you smiled sheepishly nonetheless.

“Sorry. I really forgot. If you’re caught in a dream you have to die in there. Not just in any way though, you have to kill yourself. If you are killed by someone or something else, you die out here as well.”

“Really? Suicide in a dream? I would really like to say I had weirder things before but I really can’t think of anything weirder right now…”

“I hope it won’t come to that, you just needed to know. Just in case.”

Just as you finished your thought you saw Natasha’s eyes widen as she drew her knife but you never saw if she got to use it as your world first turned blue from a slight glow and then black.

You woke again to a dog jumping on your bed and covering your face with slobber while happily wagging his tail, making you laugh.

“Rumsfeld! Stop it!” You continued laughing while trying to get him off of you, which took you a few minutes. You couldn’t really be mad at him as the Rottweiler looked at you with his big brown eyes. You smiled and scratched him behind the ears before fully getting up and stretching. After taking a shower you dressed for the day and walked down to get some breakfast. Like every morning Rumsfeld had waited for you in your room and walked down the stairs with you. “Morning Mum! Hey Dad!”

Your Mother smiled at you before handing you a plate of your favorite breakfast.

“Thanks Mum, you’re the best!” You gave her a peck on the cheek before sitting down at the table next to your father who seemed to be cleaning some car part on the table behind his wife’s back. As soon as she saw this she crosses her arms in front of her chest and glares at him.

“Robert Steven Singer! How often do I have to tell you not to do that on the dining table?!” You had already started eating and smiled at the sight. While your mother always got upset when your father brought anything to repair into the house you also knew she would forgive him just as fast.

“I’m almost done with it, Karen. Just need to clean it out and then Dean and I can finish the car.” He finished with his work and got to cleaning up the table. “Could you call the Millers?” He asked you while you finished your breakfast. “And get the bill done, they can come over and get their car in two hours.”

“Will do Dad.” Your mother collected your plate and shooed the two of you outside, but not before giving you a sandwich for Dean. You loved the family business. Singer’s salvage yard was everything you could wish for. You took care of the books and all the financials after Bobby had showed you the ropes. That left him with more time to repair the cars with your eldest brother, Dean. Your second older brother Sam was the only one who didn’t currently live with the family as he was studying at Stanford to become a lawyer but you knew that he would return today for his vacation which you really looked forward to. Your father had decided that after the Millers came in to get their car he would close down the salvage yard and the whole family would be going out for dinner. Sammy would even bring Jess, his girlfriend, with him and you were quite excited to finally meet her.

As soon as you stepped outside Rumsfeld joined you again as you walked over to the car under which a pair of legs seemed to be sticking out. You slightly kicked one of the legs.

“Hungry?” Dean slipped out from under the car and smiled brightly as he saw the sandwich.

“Well if that isn’t my favorite younger sister!” He said while he got up and hurried to wash his hands in a sink next to the car.

“I’m your only younger sister genius!” You laughed and only gave him the sandwich when you were content with the state of his hands.

“Love you too.” He said, his mouth already full with half the sandwich.

“Ugh that’s disgusting. Well, I’ll go and finish the bill… Is the list on my table?”

“It is. Just add one more hour and we’ll be done here.” Bobby answered to keep Dean from opening his full mouth again. “And remember to collect Sam afterwards. He’ll be waiting at the station with Jess in two hours.” You put a hand to your heart, acting hurt.

“Did you just imply that I could forget Sammy? How could I? He’s my favorite brother!”

“Hey, I thought I was your favorite?!” Dean answered, clearly a little upset, making you laugh at him. “Don’t worry you’re my favorite as well!” You shouted back to him as you were leaving for your little office. He seemed to be content with that for now as he slipped back under the car and continued his work. Your father’s Rottweiler followed you to your office but stayed outside. He knew he was not allowed to go inside so he laid down next to the door to take a nap while you finished the bill.

An hour later you were on your way to the station to collect Sam and Jess. You parked your car in front of the station and locked it. You went to the station before the nagging feeling that you forgot something in your trunk got to you. Turning around sharply you went back to your car and opened your trunk only to see it empty. Like a reflex you grabbed the bottom where you were sure you remembered a latch to pull it up but you found nothing. You furrowed your brows before shrugging, locking up your car and walking into the station. You were lucky that it was always easy to find Sammy even in a room full of people. How could you not notice someone who was nearly a head taller than everyone around him after all? As soon as you noticed his mop of long brown hair in the crowd you hurried up.

“Sammy!!” You shouted as you jumped at him to hug him. He instantly let go of his bag to catch you, already used to your hugs.

“(y/n)!” He laughed and spun you around once. After all it had been almost a year since you saw each other. He put you back down after a crushing hug and introduced you to Jessica, who was still standing next to him, smiling at the both of you. As soon as you got the introductions out of the way you motioned for them to follow you a little impatiently.

“Come on, Dad is closing up for the rest of the day and we’re all going out for Dinner at the Diner tonight!” Sam chuckled and took his and Jessica’s bag to follow the two of you back to the car, while you and Jessica got to know each other. He was quite happy about the fact that his little sister and his girlfriend really seemed to like each other.

The drive back to the salvage yard was filled with more chatter and laughter. Sam even took the backseat voluntarily to let the two of you continue your conversation. As soon as you drove onto the property Sam looked around.

“Home sweet home. Nothing really changed did it?”

“Not really. Though I do hope that something changed… Dean and Dad worked on a car earlier, I really hope they at least took a shower.”

“Let’s not count on it…” Sam sighed as the three of you got off the car. As soon as you got out you were already greeted by your Father’s Rottweiler who jumped at Sam to try and lick his face. He didn’t even get close but Sam laughed at the attempt even though the animal nearly knocked him over. “Hey big guy, I missed you too.” He started stroking his fur while he introduced him to Jessica. In the meantime, you walked inside to see if the guys really had taken a shower but you trusted your Mom to have the matter in hand. You nearly laughed as you saw your Father and Dean sitting at the table in their best clothes, which still consisted of jeans and flannel but at least those didn’t seem to have holes or stains on them, and your Father even missing his usual cap.

Your Mother really looked pleased with herself while the men looked down at the table until you walked in. Dean instantly started glaring at you as he saw that you were about to laugh.

“Not. A. Word.” You raised your hand in surrender and kept yourself from laughing.

The evening was absolutely perfect. Everyone loved Jess and the next days of vacation were just as perfect. There were only small things bothering you. Sometimes you woke up in the middle of the night due to the sound of the floorboards or something else and you instinctively reached for a gun under your pillow that was never there. Other times you were sure that you saw someone’s eyes flash black but when you asked your family about demons they only laughed it off as a joke. Sam and Dean seemed to get along just too perfectly, they never swore at each other. The fact alone that Dean didn’t swear seemed somehow wrong to you. Or the way he ate. When you were out for Dinner you thought that he would get a bacon cheeseburger but he ate the same rabbit food Sam would usually order. Bobby had not once called your brothers Idjits like you were absolutely sure he would normally call them. It was just small things but everything seemed wrong somehow. It took you days more to remember everything. Nick Fury. The Avengers. Natasha. The Djinn.

You swore loudly, gaining your family’s attention. They all looked at you as if you just sprouted a second head.

You stood up from your place at the dinner table and walked downstairs in a hurry. Now you were sure that the Djinn had you trapped in a world where your dream had become reality and you knew exactly what you had to do. Even in this dream Universe Bobby and Dean hunted from time to time, so there was a weapon locker downstairs for which you had the combination. You opened the locker quickly before they could follow you. The door squeaked loudly as you opened it and you heard chairs scraping on the wooden floor upstairs. Clearly Dean and Bobby had recognized the sound instantly. You didn’t have much time so you took out a handgun and loaded it as fast as possible. Just when you were done your dream-family stormed into the room, looking at you with wide eyes.

“Honey why do you have that?” Karen asked fearfully. She never liked having those weapons in the house but the thought of her only daughter handling one was a bit much for her.

“Because none of this is real.” You answered, raising the gun slightly.

“What do you mean none of this is real?!” Dean asked her loudly, inching closer to take the weapon from you while Sam did the same on your left side.

“Stop right there!” You shouted in reply while lifting the gun to your head. Your mother gasped in fear and told Bobby to stop you in a panic.

“Okay. Okay. We’ll stop.” Sam said while raising his hands to where you could see them and stopping on the spot. “(y/n). Please, we can talk about this… Please don’t do this to us…” He tried tugging at your heartstrings. Of course Sammy would use that tactic. And the worst thing about it was that it worked. You really wished that this could be your reality. That you could stop hunting and have a family like this but you knew that everything was just a lie. Tears streamed down your face as you smiled at your dream-family one last time before you heard them scream as you pulled the trigger.

“I love you all.”

You awoke with a small gasp. Keeping your eyes closed and trying to look as if you were still sleeping you tried to get your bearings. You didn’t need to move yourself to know that you were chained to a pillar with your arms above your head. You could hear the quiet breathing of someone behind your back, most likely on the other side of the pillar. You opened your right eye just slightly to peek around a little. After you were sure that you couldn’t hear anybody and that there was no one in the room you opened your eyes and inspected the chains your hands were tied up with. There was a lock that you could surely pick if you could reach one of the hairpins you had on you. Most people wouldn’t find them as you hid them in unusual places. You scooted slightly to the side and glanced around the pillar where you saw Natasha in the same position.

“Nat? Are you awake?” You whispered after looking around the rest of the room that was currently in your field of vision.

“Just woke up…” She answered still slightly groggily. It took only a moment for her to take the situation in. “Do you have anything to pick the lock?”

“I have two hairpins on me… but I can’t reach either one right now.”

“Where are they?”

“One is at the back of my head. I pinned the other on the left end of my jeans. I don’t think I’m that flexible without help.”

“You may not be. But I am. Stretch your left leg back as far as possible.” She whispered back while slipping of her right boot. You stretched your leg around the pillar like she told you to and somehow managed to get the hairpin off with her toes.

“Awesome. You really have to teach me that. Can you get the lock open?” She sighed before answering.

“There is no lock on my side. Give me a moment.”

“Oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” You swore as silently as possible while you heard Natasha doing something behind your back. “Nat? What are you doing?”

“Open your hand.” Was the only answer you got and you complied instantly. You felt something small drop into your hand and gaped as you felt the hairpin between your fingers. Natasha let herself drop down to her previous position while you picked the lock.

“That was seriously awesome. As soon as we are out of here you really need to tell me how you did that.”

“I’ll show you if you want to but we need to get out first. I managed to get the one that put you to sleep before another one got me. I don’t know how many there are left or where they put my knife… I’m quite sure you dropped yours where they got us.”

“Got it.” You mumbled as you opened the lock and got rid of the chains on your side. You hurried to the other to help Natasha out of hers. As soon as the both of you were free Natasha tugged her boot back on. “We need to get out of here. Is there anything we can do to at least stun them?” You looked around until you saw something you could use. You collected two long pieces of metal and handed one to Natasha.

“Hit them on the head. As hard as possible. Sometimes brain damage gets them too… But not always.” Natasha nodded and the two of you crept out of the room, trying to find your way outside. You knew that there was at least one more Djinn out there. There was no sign of other victims on the path you took even though you knew that there had to be more. There had to be at least the S.H.I.E.L.D. recruit somewhere. Luckily you got to the place where the Djinn took you out without meeting any of them. You searched for your knife after taking a look at the dead Djinn on the ground. As soon as you got it you stabbed him again just to be sure. A sigh of relief left you as there was no sign of him moving. Natasha tapped on your shoulder to get your attention. She pointed in the direction of another part of the ruins where a flickering light could be seen. You nodded and the two of you crept back into the ruins side by side. While you carried the knife you had given your piece of metal to Natasha who took one in each hand. They were a little heavy but she didn’t seem to have any problems with it.

It took you some time to get to the part of the ruins where you had seen the light, but you could already hear two male voices shouting at each other. It seemed like there were only two left. They were arguing about whether they should leave or not and what they should do with the two hunters they caught. One of them wanted to simply kill them and get away while the other one was sure that they were still safe and that they should just feed of the two women like they did with everyone else.

As their argument turned a little more heated Natasha and you saw your chance to take them out. Natasha would need to distract them while you would go for the kill from behind.

The two of you split up to the two sides of the room the Djinn’s were in. You waited until Natasha moved out of the shadows and stunned one of the Djinn with a heavy hit to the head. While he crumpled together on the floor his friend moved to attack Natasha faster than she could keep up with for long. You took just enough time to look around if there were any more around before moving up behind the Djinn and stabbing him in the back.

He died fast and you instantly turned around to stab the one on the floor. Natasha already moved to check the victims who were hanging like meat from pillars, just like you had found yourself before.

Three of the victims were already dead and three more still alive though one of them only barely.

While Natasha saw to the victims you moved around the room to see if they brought your stuff here. You found the second knife and both of your cellphones. You speed dialed Nick and told him that he would need to send a team to get the victims out as soon as possible.

Luckily he was wide awake as soon as you called him. You handed the second knife and her cellphone back to Natasha and worked on the locks with your hairpin before taking them down with her help as gently as possible. By the time you were done you could already hear the Quinjet outside. There wasn’t enough space to land but the jet kept hovering above the trees while the team roped down. It took only minutes before the victims were inside the jet and you sighed.

“What is it?” Natasha asked you as she moved out of the ruins.

“There is a perfectly fine jet here to take us home, but no! We have to take a boat back. I’d start swearing but I’m not leaving my car. Mind keeping me company on the way back?”

“Of course not. Let’s go.” The black Widow smiled at you. “After all someone has to protect you from the Rusalka, right?”

“Oh damn, I’m not going to live that one down am I?”

“Not really.” She motioned for the jet to take off and moved to the boat with you. The two of you only started talking again when you were back on the boat.

“So… How was your first hunt?” You tried starting the conversation you knew you would have to get through sooner or later as lightly as possible.

“It was something else, but that’s not what you really want to ask me so just spill it.”

“Alright. I just wanted to ask you if you are okay… I know I’m not after what I saw in that dream…” Natasha stayed silent for a while before answering. You didn’t want to press her any more so you decided to stay silent until she knew what to tell you.

“You said you know my file right?” You nodded only, not wanting to interrupt her. “It was… so different. I was never in the red room. I had a normal childhood with parents who loved me. School, tests, awkward first crushes. Just everything people these days take for granted. I… I also was married and had… a child.” At this part she was silent again. The both of you stepped off the boat before she continued talking. “It’s something I can’t have anymore. Not after the red room. I really… really, really wanted it to be true…” You moved on impulse and hugged the woman.

“I understand. You don’t have to talk about it anymore if you don’t want to, but if you need to talk I’m here for you.” The hug didn’t last long but at least Natasha smiled a little after it.

“Thank you.”

“No need to thank me. I don’t know about you but I could really use something strong right now. Preferably in heaps to forget about today as much as possible. Join me?” You asked as you entered your car to drive back to the tower.

“Gladly. You got any place in mind?”

“Of course. Let’s get back to the tower.”

“Tony’s stash?”

“Tony’s stash.”


	7. ...with Loki

An explosion woke you the next morning. Instantly you grabbed for the gun under your cushion and aimed it at the door. Seeing that there was nobody in the room you hurried to get up and sneaked out of the room, taking your angel blade with you, to take a look at the hallway where a pretty pissed Natasha was already standing and cursing.

“What happened…?” you asked while lowering your weapon.

“Either Tony or Clint unleashed the Hulk again or Tony blew something up. It’s most likely Tony’s fault. J.A.R.V.I.S.? What happened?”

“It seems that Mister Stark made the mistake of trying to prank Loki. They are currently fighting at Loki’s floor.” At this Natasha released a long sigh.

“Come on, let’s break this up before they destroy everything or Thor decides to intervene…” You chuckled and put the gun into the back of the waistband of the shorts you had borrowed from Natasha while the blade stayed in your hand.

“Why are they even awake? It’s barely 6…” you yawned while you went into the elevator with Natasha.

“Tony most likely never slept and woke Loki up with the prank…” she shrugged lightly and stepped out of the elevator as soon as the two of you reached the right floor.

There was a lot of ice around you and some scorch marks as well as a few holes in the walls here and there. What a curious combination. As soon as you went down the hall into the sitting room you saw where the combination came from.

Tony was hovering in the room with his Iron Man suit while Loki was trying to freeze him.

“Guys! What’s going on here?!” Natasha shouted, trying to get their attention. Now you noticed that Loki was only wearing sweatpants and was drenched from head to toe. His skin also had a light red color to it.

“Reindeer games cannot take a little prank it seems!” Tony answered through his suit, laughing.

“I told you not to call me that!” He just barely managed to get out of the way of Loki trying to freeze him again so that the sofa took the attack instead.

“Calm down right now or I swear I’ll get an angry Bruce to deal with you!” Natasha’s patience with the two of them seemed to have run out pretty fast. Not that you could blame her. You were not happy with being forced to wake up so early.

At least her threat worked and the two of them calmed down. Natasha glared at both of them, expecting an answer. When they both started talking at the same time she hushed them again, signaling for Loki to start.

“He dumped a bucket of hot water on me.” Loki gave Tony an icy glare.

“Yeah I had to use hot water, cold water wouldn’t have bothered you!” Tony started again to which Loki reacted with another burst of ice.

“A Bucket of hot water? Really?” Natasha sighed and rubbed her temple. “Tony you should apologize. Loki hasn’t been playing any tricks on us lately and I don’t want a prank war.”

“But-!”

“No but. Apologize.” She interrupted him instantly.

“But I-!”

“NO! Apologize!” By now Natasha was furious and Loki and you were quite relieved that her anger was not directed at you. 

“….Fine. I’m sorry, Elsa.” Natasha sighed again at the nickname.

“And you’re going to have this floor repaired and cleaned up.”

Even Loki knew the apology wouldn’t get any better than that so he retreated to his bathroom while Tony flew out through the broken window and Natasha and you went back to her floor. She finally had the time to ask you about your weapon.

“Care to tell me what kind of blade that is?”

“Oh that’s an angel blade. Angel’s usually carry them and they’re one of the most powerful weapons on the planet.”

“How so?”

“They can kill angels and a lot of other supernatural beings as well as demons easily. One stab and that’s it.”

“That does sound quite useful.”

“Believe me it is.”

A few hours later after everybody woke up and had breakfast they gathered in the lounge of the common room, ready to listen to you about your case. By the time everyone was ready you had already gotten your stuff from the hotel into the bedroom of the floor Tony had assigned to you.

“So what are you going after babe?” Tony asked after sitting down with a drink in hand.

“First I’d like to tell you about the information Nick gathered. You’re going to need some examples to get to know that thing.” You opened up the file at the first page. “The first murder happened a few weeks ago. You might have heard about it: the death of Luke Hamilton.” You waited for their reactions and to see if anyone of them already knew about it. It would surprise you if none of them had heard of it yet, after all it had been in the news for days.

“Are you talking about that greedy millionaire ass who exploited his workers?” Clint asked while he was trying to remember the details of the newscast about it.

“Yeah. I’m talking about him. I don’t really know what was said about his cause of death in the news but it’s a fact that he was drowned.” You kept silent for a moment before adding: “In money.”

You noticed that no one but Loki seemed to think of that as funny as the god was trying very hard not to laugh about it. He had heard nothing about the man previous to this discussion but from what Clint had said moments before it seemed like a very fitting death for a man like him.

“How do you drown someone in money?” Tony asked while he was thinking very hard about how someone could achieve such a feat.

“I’ll explain everything as soon as I told you about the other three victims. The second one was Scott Booker, a poacher who had fun hunting down endangered species. According to the evidence he was killed by a lion that was never found. In his bedroom. On the third floor.”

By now most of them looked at you as if you had lost your mind.

“How can a lion get into a third floor bedroom?” Sam asked, completely confused.

“Without leaving any trace of him ever being there I should add.” You had to admit that the confused looks on their faces were very funny to watch. Loki was already biting his lower lip slightly, trying to keep silent. “The third one was a banker who was known for ridiculing people. He especially loved to bully the waitresses at a café he frequented. That behavior was stopped when he was found inside his apartment in his bathtub. Where he was burned to death by hot coffee that filled the tub.”

By now Thor had noticed the way Loki was trying not to laugh and shot him a glare. The others had decided to just wait for the explanation.

“And the last one only three days ago was a boss of a drug syndicate who was here in New York at the time dying by an overdose.” As soon as you had finished Loki could not hold back a chuckle anymore. When everyone stared at him, glaring he cleared his throat slightly. You decided to go on before they tried to stare Loki into the ground. As soon as you started talking their full attention was back on you.

“There was one thing the crime scenes had in common: Candy wrappers were found.”

Now you had managed to completely loose them.

“Candy wrappers?” Steve asked, believing that maybe he just had heard wrong.

“Candy wrappers.” You confirmed with a nod before you had to laugh. “Okay now that I had my fun confusing you, I’ll explain. Those ironic deaths and the candy wrappers are a sign for one being: a Trickster.”

Not even a second later everyone was staring at Loki again who raised his hands in defense.

“I have not killed any of those Midgardians. They would hardly be worth my time.” At this you had to laugh even harder.

“No no no, I’m not talking about him, I’m talking about a Trickster from earth.”

“What’s so important about those candy wrappers?” Natasha asked, trying to get everyone back on track and stop them from glaring at Loki.

“Tricksters are known for having a sweet tooth. They’re munching on some candy most of the time.”

“Alright… and what are their powers?”

“They are immortal shapeshifters who are almost invulnerable. They have the power to warp reality, conjure everything or everyone they want out of thin air with a thought… Apart from that there is their telekinesis, extraordinary strength and the ability to teleport.”

Everyone was back to glaring at Loki, making you sigh.

“Seriously guys? It was only funny the first time. Like I said, it was not him.”

“How can you be so sure of that?” Tony asked you with a raised eyebrow. “He already showed us that he is a cold-blooded murderer.”

“Exactly because of that.” You stated before Loki could even open his mouth to try and defend himself again. His gaze switched from Tony to you, watching you curiously. He wanted to know how why you sounded so sure of yourself, normally Midgardians tended to not trust him. “Because of the cold thing. Tricksters are capable of pyrokinesis.”

“It cannot be my brother then!” Thor boomed and gave Loki a ‘pat’ on the back. Which resulted in him groaning slightly and almost falling over.

“You mentioned that these Tricksters are almost invulnerable? How can they be killed?” Natasha asked with a serious look on her face.

“They have to be staked through the heart. With a wooden stake dipped into the blood of one of their victims. Which Nick luckily already got me, now I just have to find him.”

“It is not a simple feat to find a Trickster. How do you think to accomplish it, Midgardian?” Loki asked crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“First of all I’m going to check everything again and see if the cases had anything in common. I don’t think I really need to find him, as soon as he knows I’m onto him he will either try and talk his way out of it or try to kill me.”

“So you presume that he will come to you? What if he decides not to show himself to you?”

“In that case I’m taking my backup with me.”

“And who may be your backup?”

“Oh since you’re asking so nice I’ll take you with me.” You grinned at him savoring his very short shocked expression.

“You’re not really considering taking reindeer games are you?” Tony asked, slightly worried. You shrugged slightly.

“Nick asked me to teach the whole team about this and I will have to take him sooner or later. I’d rather it be on a case where he can be useful. Who is better to fight a trickster then a trickster, right Frosty?” Loki glared slightly at you.

“What is it with you mortals and your nicknames?”

“In my defense I should tell you that I was going to call you Trickster but that would be confusing right now so I changed it to Frosty. I also believe in second chances and after I gave one to the first Loki I met it would be pretty mean if I didn’t give one to him as well, right?”

“What are you talking about mortal? I’m the one and only Loki. God of Mischief and Lies.” He looked a little pissed now and risen from his place next to Thor to tower over you.

“Sit down you’re not intimidating me.” You respond calmly while laying the closed file onto the table in front of you. “While you only almost succeeded in killing me he did. I died so many times that I lost count.” Loki refused to sit down and started pacing.

“Are you trying to imply that this impersonator is more powerful than I am?”

“I’m sorry if I was implying that, that wouldn’t be fair.” Loki nodded, a bit satisfied with your apology before you continued. “He’s more powerful than you, no question.”

As soon as they saw the thunderous expression on Loki’s face, Clint and Tony were almost rolling around, laughing loudly. Bucky and Natasha were the only ones who managed to control themselves while the rest of them released small chuckles, making Loki furious. He was just about to leave as you stopped him.

“You’re coming with me whether you want to or not.”

“Why should I go along with you mortal?”

“Because it’s either going along with me or back into the cage.” He was silent for a moment before answering.

“When do we leave?”

Not even an hour later you were just about ready to claw Loki’s throat out. He was a real master when it came to complaining. At first you had tried to simply ignore him. It took some time for your patience to run out but you were sick and tired of it.

As soon as the two of you had left the police station where you had been to review the evidence and make a list of the witnesses and relatives, which was luckily rather short, you walked back to your car with him following you.

“I’m fed up with you! If you complain one more time I promise you’ll regret it!”

“Really? How would make me regret it? You are a weak mortal while I am a god. You could never injure me.”

“Care to test that statement?” you glared at him while slipping your angel blade into your hand, taking a swing at his face with it. Loki recoiled instantly but still got a deep cut to the cheek. He hissed and touched the burning cut.

“You shouldn’t underestimate a mortal. Now get into the car and shut the fuck up.” You told him while you stashed your blade back in your short jacket and sat down in the driver’s seat.

On the one hand Loki was shocked that you had dared to attack him like that but on the other you had managed to intrigue him. After all there were not many who dared to stand up to him, not even back in Asgard. He slipped into the passenger’s seat before taking a look at you.

“(y/n)?”

“Ah, so you do know my name!” you responded with sarcasm dripping from your voice. You had told him to shut up and here he was talking again. At least he had addressed you by your name and not called you mortal or Midgardian again so you decided to listen for now. You took a look at your list again and started driving to the first witness.

“What kind of weapon did you just use? I never saw something like that before… And the cut still burns.”

“It’s an angel blade. Have you heard of angels before?” He thought about that before answering.

“I don’t believe I have…”

“Most believes on earth have a concept of heaven and hell. While hell is the realm of devils and demons heaven is the place where god is said to reside and where angels live. While souls of sinners go to hell to be tortured for eternity those who were good in their lives go to heaven, the eternal paradise, after their death. Angels are the soldiers of heaven. There are many classes of them and all have different duties and responsibilities assigned to them but most of them carry angel blades. While humans cannot perceive their real appearances they can take humans as vessels to walk earth. An angel blade is one of the most powerful weapons on earth as it is one of the only things that can kill an angel and you can kill a lot of other supernatural beings easily with it. Angels are a lot more powerful themselves than most supernatural beings though. They can smite them with a touch.”

“It seems to me like it would be a good choice not to cross an angel then…”

“Sometimes you have to though. I killed some myself actually.” Now you had his attention. Conversation flowed more easily after you told him some of your stories and since he could not perceive any signs of lying from you he believed them. It seemed like he finally got over his complaining as well. You could finally relax a little and do your job.

The witnesses and relatives were not really much help to you from them you just received one major information: The victims were douchebags and they got what they deserved.

While Loki and you agreed to that wholeheartedly it still didn’t really help you finding the Trickster.

On a hunch you decided to go to the café that the third victim had frequented. You were hungry and maybe you could get some information out of the waitresses. The two of you had small wooden stakes hidden on yourself which were coated with the blood of the first victim in case that you managed to find the Trickster by chance.

You actually had to admit that now that he had stopped complaining talking to Loki was quite fascinating. Just like you had told him stories of your cases he had told you of Asgard and the fights he had taken part in. While they were clearly not as numerous as the ones Thor had there were still a lot of them. It was really not surprising if you considered how old he was.

The two of you sat down in the café were you ordered your favorite coffee and something to eat as Loki did the same. You had barely lowered yourself onto the chair and there already was a waitress smiling at Loki and ready to take your order.

“I can’t believe it… We’ve been here for like a minute and you already charmed all of the waitresses… Why don’t you try and get some more information about the third victim out of them? Should be easy enough for you shouldn’t it?” You grin slightly at him as you wait for your coffee.

“You want me to charm those mortal women even more? They might not be able to take it.” This made you laugh and you received more than one envious glare from the women around you.

“It’s either that or I wait until they kill me with their icy glares. They already hate me for sitting here with you, there is no chance that they’ll tell me anything.” While you receive your coffee and food Loki sighs dramatically.

“The sacrifices I need to make for helping you… Very well but on one condition only.”

“Oh? And what would that condition be?”

“You tell that director how well I was cooperating with you. Being a prisoner in that tower is not much different from a cage of glass. Maybe he can be persuaded to let me outside from time to time with your help.”

“Well you are cooperating well so I don’t see a problem with that. Why do you think that my word would have any sway with Nick?”

“You are the only one who addresses him by his first name.”

“Caught me there. Alright, I’ll talk to him if you promise me not to kill, maim or torture anyone on your trips should he allow you to go outside.”

“Those foolish mortals are hardly worth my time…”

“I don’t know if that was a yes or a no.”

“I promise.”

“Alright, but if you go against that I’ll come after you with my angel blade.” You laughed and sipped at your coffee. “Now go and charm the ladies Frosty, we need to find that trickster. And be on the lookout for anyone who is munching on sweets.” Loki grinned at you and took his coffee inside with him.

Half an hour later you had finished your coffee and were trying to order a new one while the waitresses had fallen completely under Loki’s spell. It seemed that you would have no luck with ordering until a waiter came to your table.

“I’m sorry about them… would you like something else?”

“I’ll just have another coffee, thank you.” You smiled and looked up to him only to zoom in on the lollipop in his mouth. “Did you just start your shift?”

“Yes I did. Otherwise you would already have a new coffee. I’m really sorry about that…”

“Oh don’t sweat it, I’m not in a hurry to leave.” You gave him a bright smile which he returned. He hurried off to get you a new cup of coffee while you tried to keep him in your field of vision. It was a long shot but he could be the Trickster. When he came back and served your coffee to you, you decided to try and chat with him a bit.

“So have you been working here for long?”

“Not really Miss, I just started a few weeks ago.” He told you with a polite smile on his face.

“Please, call me (y/n). What’s yours?”

“It’s David.”

“Nice to meet you David.” You extended your hand for him to shake but he hesitated and glanced at Loki.

“Ehm, I don’t want to aggravate your boyfriend…”

“Boyfriend?” You had to laugh very hard at that. “No we’re just working together. Otherwise he wouldn’t be flirting with your colleagues. I don’t have a boyfriend.” You received an even brighter smile from the waiter at that and he decided to shake the hand you had offered to him.

“Seems like today is my lucky day then.”

“It might be… do you have another of those?” You asked him and pointed at his lollipop.

“Sure, what kind would you like?”

“Hm… how about strawberry?” He makes a grand gesture out of pulling one out of his pockets where there had been nothing before, you were quite sure of that. You smiled as he gave it to you.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome my dear. Would it be too brazen of me to ask you if you’d like to have a drink with me later?” He asked you with a charming grin on his face. You opened the lollipop and put it in your mouth, staying silent as if you were thinking about his offer.

“I was actually looking for someone to show me around, I just moved here recently. I’d love to have a drink with you.” You took a napkin from the table and a pen out of your pocket to write down the number of one of your burner phones. “Here. Why don’t you call me later and we’ll meet up?”

“I’ll be sure to call you. Sorry but I need to continue with my work… See you later!” He slipped the napkin into his pocket before winking and leaving to take care of the other guests.

You took a sip of your coffee before Loki joined you again.

“Had fun?” You asked him before putting the lollipop back into your mouth.

“No. Of course not. Those pathetic mortals really tested my patience.”

“Did you at least get something useful out of them?”

“All of the victims frequented this café. That and I think I’m developing a headache.” He answered, slightly rubbing his left temple.

“And I may have found the Trickster. The waiter who served me coffee. He’s already on his second sucker that he’s taking from nowhere plus the one he gave me. Add the fact that all the victims frequented the café and we have a suspect. I’ll be meeting him tonight for drinks.”

“Do you believe that to be a wise course of action?” You finished your coffee and dropped some bills onto the table including a nice tip.

“I don’t have a choice.” You answered while giving a wave to David before leaving with Loki. “I need to find out if he really is the Trickster, I’m not just going to kill an innocent man because he could be one. You’re a shapeshifter yourself are you not?”

“Of course I am.”

“Great, that means you can go with me tonight and keep an eye out. I’d prefer not to go against a Trickster without backup. Let’s return for now and wait for his call.”

A few hours later you finally got the call from David and were going to meet him an hour later. In the meantime you had shown some more books to Loki and had taken some time to select what to wear. You were never really one to date, never really had time for it, so you had little experience with how to act. Loki was going to follow you in another form but decided it would be better not to show it to you before you left. That way you wouldn’t be able to give yourself away by looking at him too long.

Before you left you slipped the wooden stake into your short jacket, hiding it.

“That’s it. Wish me luck!” You smiled at Loki before leaving.

“Good luck.”

You met David at a bar not far away from the tower. He was already waiting for you outside and munching on some chocolate. Seemed like you got the right guy. You smiled and waved while walking up to him.

“I hope you haven’t been waiting for long?” He swallowed his chocolate fast before answering.

“Sorry about that, I’ve got a serious sweet tooth. Don’t worry I just got here.”

“I understand, I love sweets as well. Mind sharing?” He smiled at you and gave you a bit of his chocolate. “Thanks. Let’s go inside.”

By the time you had your third drink you were sure you had the right guy. He seemed to always snack on something. He had also made the mistake to talk about the victims and how he thought what happened to them was really funny. He was really not the sharpest tool in the shed. And something like that called himself Trickster. You were sure that Gabriel would laugh his ass off should he hear about any of this. Just as abruptly as the angel had come to your mind he had to leave it again. He could cause a lot more problems if he decided to listen to your ‘prayer’ and flutter in for a visit.

You had your fourth drink almost two hours after you had stepped into the bar and were ready to leave. As soon as you stood up to stretch a bit you staggered a bit as if you were drunk. David steadied you with a worried glance.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, I just had a bit more to drink than I thought… Sorry. Would you mind going for a walk with me? I think some fresh air would do me good…” He nodded and paid for the drinks before taking your hand and going outside with you. You thanked him and the two of you talked a bit while you walked around. As soon as you were sure that there was nobody around, with the exception of Loki maybe but you hadn’t seen him yet and if he was following you he did a great job, you shoved the man against a wall forcefully and slipped the stake into your hand before he could react. You pressed it against his throat when he tried to get away.

“I know what you are, you’re not tricking me.” You hissed at him before moving the stake to point at his heart.

“Slow down sweetheart, do you really want to do that? We could have a lot of fun you know?”

“I don’t need your kind of fun.” It was a really bad timing that Loki decided to show up the second you were going to ram the stake into his heart and distracted you long enough for the Trickster to act.

He snapped his fingers.

You were awoken by an explosion and sat straight up on your bed. “Son of a bitch!” You cursed while getting up and walking into the hallway were Natasha was already standing. Just like the last time she was cursing.

“Either Tony or Clint unleashed the Hulk again or Tony blew something up. It’s most likely Tony’s fault. J.A.R.V.I.S.? What happened?”

“It seems that Mister Stark made the mistake of trying to prank Loki. They are currently fighting at Loki’s floor.” Natasha released a sigh as soon as she heard this.

“Come on, let’s break this up before they destroy everything or Thor decides to intervene…”

On Loki’s floor you were greeted by the same view you already saw earlier. Ice, burns and holes. Almost everything was the same and you listened to their conversation. Just one thing was different: Loki complained how Tony could play the same prank two days in a row. While that confused everyone else you knew that he also remembered everything. Shortly after Tony left you looked at Natasha.

“I’ll be upstairs in a few, I need to talk to Frosty.” She raised an eyebrow but nodded and left.

Loki was quite surprised to see you waiting for him when he walked out of his bathroom fully dressed and drying his hair with a towel.

“So you remember yesterday?”

“It takes more than that to manipulate me. I’m surprised that you remember as well. What did that Trickster do?”

“He either just send us back in time to get away or locked us up in a time-loop. My money would be on the time-loop it would be more fun for him.”

“A time-loop? How do you know that?”

“I was caught in one before, I’ll tell you the story as soon as we take this bastard down, alright? Now we need to find him again… If we’re really in a time-loop he will be somewhere close by so that he can amuse himself watching us. Seems like we have to watch out for a candy lover again.”

“What if he simply stops eating candy?”

“He can’t. He needs to consume a lot because of his high metabolism. But first we need the blood again… And that means we have to wait for Nick to send the blood again. Just act out everything like you did yesterday until we get it, I’ll do the same. I’ll tell you as soon as I have it.”

The two of you acted almost completely like the day before. There was just the little difference that you were nicer to each other while you talked. The others were a bit confused by that, after all you had hit him in the face yesterday.

After you had told them that you would take Loki with you there was a short discussion, just like the day before but just like the previous day you got everyone to agree with you. As soon as you received the blood you prepared the stakes and moved out with Loki by your side.

The two of you walked back to the café to see if you could find out more about the Trickster. You waited outside while Loki walked in to charm one of the waitresses again and find out more about the guy. As soon as the waitress heard his lie about trying to set you up with David she was eating out of his hands. He even managed to get his address out of her. After remembering it he went outside where he had just heard the sound of a car crashing into something.

The driver of the car had lost control of it and before you could do anything he had knocked you over and you landed heavily on the street, cracking your skull open in the process.

“Great… one of those again…” You breathed out while you watched Loki running to your side. The last thing you heard was him shouting your name before you closed your eyes and took your last breath.

Your eyes snapped open at the sound of an explosion and you breathed a sigh of relief. Natasha and you went to Loki’s floor again to break up the fight and you stayed afterwards to talk with Loki.

“How is this possible? I saw you die on that street…”

“Like I said yesterday, we are in a time-loop. And this one seems to start anew when I die. Don’t worry about me, I already had one like this, I’ll be okay. Did you find out anything yesterday?” He nodded in response before sitting on the clear half of his half frozen sofa.

“I found out the address of that man. If we get there before his shift at the café starts we should be able to take him out.”

“Alright. So we need to wait for the blood and then we’ll go to his apartment. I just have to stay alive until we got everything. Easy as pie…” You sighed before a sound above your head caught your attention. Before you could do anything else you were impaled through the head by a giant icicle.

You groaned as you were awoken by an explosion again. You hadn’t even made it to the time you would receive the blood from Nick. As you rose to get to Loki’s floor with Natasha you were really looking forward to the moment you could impale the tricky bastard. You didn’t even manage to talk to Loki alone this time as Tony's suit seemed to malfunction and you were blasted out of the room by his repulsors.

You had lost count how many times that damn explosion had awoken you already. There were way too many ways to die on a normal day. Loki was trying his best to keep you alive and this day you finally received the blood from Nick. You had been killed by an exploding coffee maker, squashed by a piece of the vents with Clint still in it that broke down due to his weight, you had accidentally stood in the way when Thor called for Mjolnir, been in the way when the Hulk was unleashed… Almost all of them had killed you in one way or another during the last days. Luckily they would not remember any of it or you were sure they would feel very guilty for putting you through this. Sadly you and Loki could remember and with all the time the two of you had spent with each other and repeated the same things every day you had grown a bit closer and he did not like the fact that he had to watch you die so many times at all. As soon as you had managed to get your hands on the blood again and prepared the stakes you decided not to take any unnecessary risks any more. Loki laid his hand on your shoulder and teleported the two of you to the address of David.

The two of you were standing in front of the door, stakes drawn and listened for a moment for any movement inside. As soon as you heard someone walking around you nodded to him and he broke down the door with a shove while you dashed inside.

There were more sweets and cakes in the room than you cared to count and the Trickster was standing in the middle of it. He had no time to act before you were standing before him, stake pointed at him again.

“Had your fun?” you grumbled at him while he only smiled brightly.

“Of course I had! Do you know how much fun it was to watch the two of you struggle through your days? To see the look in his eyes when you died again? The look on your face every time you woke up? It was hilarious!” He laughed out loud and held his hand up, ready to snap his fingers. “What makes you think you’ll be fast enough this time?” He looked from you to Loki who was still standing in the doorway and back.

“Oh I won’t.” The Trickster grinned in reply. “But I don’t need to.” There was a moment of shock in his eyes before he felt the pain. Loki stood behind him and had rammed the wooden stake right through his heart. At the same moment his illusion in the doorway vanished. “I’m just the distraction after all.” You finished your sentence while you watched him fall to the ground as Loki released his grip on the stake.

As soon as the Trickster died his conjured sweets around you disappeared and you both released a long sigh of relief.

“Glad that’s finally over. I’ll tell Nick to send over a team for the clean-up.”

“I’d be happy to never have a Wednesday again.” Loki grumbled, making you laugh.

“Same here, at least you were not the one who was killed all the time! There is just one more problem left…”

“And that would be?”

“I don’t think they’ll believe this and I don’t want to tell some of the things that happened anyway, they would just feel guilty so… How do we explain to the others that we don’t want to kill each other anymore?”


	8. ...with Bucky

You started the next morning early. A look at your phone revealed that it was only 7 in the morning, making you groan. Apparently sleep was not coming to you again so you decided to rise and be productive. It had been a while since you last had been out for a jog, so you got up.

“J.A.R.V.I.S.?”

“Yes, Miss (y/n)?”

“Could you please notify Natasha that I will be out for a bit when she wakes up? I want to get my stuff and go jogging.”

“Of course, Miss (y/n).”

“Thanks.”

You dressed yourself and left, taking care to be quiet so that Natasha would not wake up because of you. You also left a drawing of the Anti-possession symbol for her in case that the tattoo artist arrived while you were out.

Driving through the rush hour would not be the most intelligent thing to do and it was not so far anyway so you decided to take the public transport for a bit. It only took you a few minutes to get to your hotel this way where you dressed in more comfortable clothes for a run. As a hunter you had to stay in shape after all.

After making your way out of the busy streets to a park you started to stretch until you heard your name being called.

You looked up to see the soldiers coming up to you.

“Morning (y/n), up for a bit of running?”

“Of course Sam, otherwise I would not be up at a time like this!” You smile at them while finishing with your stretching.

“Finally someone who will run with me! Do you know how bad it is with those two?” He points at Bucky and Steve.

“He’s just sore about us running faster than him!” Steve laughs.

“Don’t worry Soldier,” you say while giving Sam a pat on the back. “I’ll run with you.”

The four of you start jogging with Steve and Bucky leaving Sam and you behind in a few seconds.

“Now I see what you mean! I didn’t thought that they would be that fast…”

“Yeah and I have to deal with that every morning… And every time Steve passes me he shouts ‘On your left!’ Every. Damn. Morning! Every. Damn. Time!”

You manage to keep up with Sam easily as he jogs at a leisure pace and laughed as he grumbled about Steve.

“Just wait for it, they should be almost done with their first round.” He tells you a few minutes later and as if he timed it you heard an ‘On your left!’ behind you before Bucky and Steve passed you.

“Oh come on man!”

The same thing went on a few more times before Sam had enough. As soon as he heard Steve’s ‘On your left!’ he started sprinting to keep up with the super soldier as best as possible.

Bucky on the other hand slowed down next to you while he sighed.

“I swear the both of them are children…”

“Nice to hear you finally talk, James.” You smile at him as he raises an eyebrow at you.

“No one calls me James.”

“Well I will from now on if you’re okay with that… Everyone calls you Bucky and I like having my own names for people. Until I come up with a nickname for you its James.”

“I don’t mind… I’m just not used to it anymore.”

You manage to catch up to Sam and Steve who stopped when Sam couldn’t run anymore.

“I don’t know about you guys but I’ll go back to my hotel, I need a shower and I forgot to bring any water…” you sigh as you catch your breath next to Sam. The poor guy is absolutely exhausted but at least he managed to keep up with Steve for a bit, thanks to Steve slowing down a bit for him without him noticing.

Steve pats him on the back while Bucky hands you his water.

“Thanks but it’s yours. I’ll just go and buy some.”

“You can drink it, I don’t mind.”

“Thanks…”

You almost down half the bottle in one go before stopping to catch your breath again.

“At least now I know that I don’t need to worry about you guys when I take you with me. It always helps to be fit.”

“I don’t think you need to worry about any of us too much.” Steve throws in. “We can all handle ourselves pretty well.”

“Yeah, I know that but monsters and demons are all a bit… different, I guess. If something can throw you against a wall just by thinking about it, it doesn’t matter how fit you are. Experience counts and a dash of luck always helps. Not that I think that you guys couldn’t handle a monster, you are better off than most hunters when they start… I mean…” you sigh. “I’m rambling again. Sorry… I already sent a text to Maria, the tattoo artist should be at the tower by now. You should go and get yours. Oh, and remember not to get it anywhere too easily visible.”

You return the rest of the water to Bucky before starting to jog back into the direction of your hotel.

“I’ll see you there! And thanks again for the water, James!”

They wave at you while Steve looks at Bucky with a raised eyebrow.

“James? No one calls you James anymore…”

He shrugs in reply.

“She does.”

You took your time getting back to your room and took a long, relaxing hot shower. Only when the water was starting to get cold you stepped outside to dry off yourself and blow-dry your hair.

To get all of them their tattoos would take time so you decided to treat yourself to a nice breakfast and coffee at a café down the street. Afterwards you collected your bag and returned the room key before making your way back to the tower.

The tattoo artist was just leaving when you arrived at the common room.

“Hey, everyone done?”

Natasha nodded to you after greeting you.

“Everyone but Bruce, we’ll have to think about something for him if this goes on…”

“As long as he’s wearing the locket it should be fine for now. I’ll think of something later… for now I would like to tell you about the case or better yet the thing that I’ll be hunting.”

You all sat down in the common room while Tony decided that another drink was what he needed the most right now. He got himself a drink from the bar before sitting down.

“So, what’s the monster of a day, babe?”

“A real classic. Although hunters thought they were extinct for a while because everyone hunted them down there was an increase a few years back… Thanks to the information Nick gathered I’m sure that there is a vampire’s nest in New York and according to the number of victims it’s a big one.”

“Vampires. Okay. So are we talking Twilight?”

“God no, that’s the worst vampire movie in existence Tony! They don’t sparkle in the sunlight. There is actually a lot of wrong lore about them…”

“And what do you mean with nest?”

“Could you please just let her explain without interrupting every two seconds?” Natasha sighed at him to which he shrugged and nipped on his drink.

“Thanks Nat. Okay, first about the bad lore. If you ever meet a vampire crosses, garlic or stakes to the heart? They’ll laugh at you before ripping your windpipe out for fun. They don’t have these four sharp teeth like in every vampire movie ever made, they have a row of sharp retractable teeth. Like a shark. With one bite of those they can rip out your throat. Just like that. Oh and the ‘they don’t have reflections’ and ‘have to be invited into your house’ things? Bullshit. They can view themselves in a mirror just like they simply break down your door to get into your house when they want to.”

You made a pause when Tony walked back to the bar to refill his glass.

“Could you get me one as well?”

“Sure babe, if I get a kiss out of it.”

“Forget it then.” You shoot him down to which he grabs his heart as if he had been mortally wounded.

“You just love to hurt me, don’t you?”

“Seems like as good a way to pass the time as any, drama queen.” This manages to loosen up the mood a bit when Clint has to laugh.

“Just come to terms with it Tony, she doesn’t want you.”

“Now that’s bullshit, everyone wants me.”

He gets you a drink anyway and winks at you when you take it.

“Thanks. So back to the vampires. Ah yes, while they prefer to hunt at night they can go out during the day. Sun doesn’t kill them but they get a really bad sunburn and are in a lot of pain. I think that’s it about the bad lore. Now to answer your question from earlier Tony: they live in groups that are usually referred to as nests. Most of the time that means 8 to 10 vampires per nest but I have seen bigger ones as well. They have a strict hierarchy with one leader per nest who most of the time has a mate.”

At this Clint pipes in.

“Mate? You mean like a husband or wife?”

“It’s a bit like that… They mate for life which can be really long for a vampire. Which brings me to their powers. The older, the more powerful they are. They don’t grow old or sick, the moment they are completely turned they stay the way they are for eternity or until they get killed. They also regenerate almost instantly. Apart from that they are freaking strong, fast, agile, they don’t get tired and don’t even get me started on their senses. They can see in the dark and the old ones can catch the smell from a drop of blood from across the city.”

“When you say it like that they seem almost impossible to sneak up on…” Natasha thinks out loud, giving you a chance to take a drink between all the talking.

“Normally they are. Hunters have developed a scent-blocking mixture over time to help them hunt vampires down. It’s not a pretty smell but it gets the job done.”

“Get to the point babe, how are they turned and how do you kill them?”

“A vampire can turn you by feeding you his blood. A newly turned vamp will be overwhelmed by the world as they have to adjust to their sharper senses but after that comes the bloodlust. If their maker doesn’t provide the blood for them they sometimes go on a killing spree to get every drop of blood they can get their fangs on. As soon as they drink a drop of human blood it’s a vampire’s life for them for the rest of their days. Before that they can be cured. Believe me, I wouldn’t take anyone of you as backup if there was no way to cure them. There is also just one way for a hunter to kill them.”

With your thumb you make a move over your throat.

“Beheading. That’s why hunting vampires is always a messy thing. The blood doesn’t wash out so it’s easier to burn the clothes afterwards. They can also be poisoned by dead man’s blood. It causes them enough pain to incapacitate them for a short time. That’s about it I think…”

“I would enjoy hunting those creatures with you, Lady (y/n)!”

“Thanks Thor, but I can’t take you or Loki with me. I don’t know if vampires can turn Asgardians and if they can if the cure would work for you. I can’t risk that.”

“I quite understand. I do hope that I can accompany you on another of your hunts in the future.”

“You will, don’t worry about it.”

Natasha nodded approvingly while you took in the rest of your drink.

“I know the nest is somewhere in New York, Brooklyn to be exact. That means searching a bit. They tend to take abandoned warehouses for themselves, so that’s a point to start. Might take a while to find them though.”

“And who will you be taking with you for this?” Steve asked. He was concerned because those vampires sounded like they would be a bit much.

“I would actually like to take James with me if he doesn’t mind.”

His head shoots up and he stares at you for a moment. It seems he really didn’t think that you would pick him, after all this was a mission were you needed your partner’s full trust and the list of people who trusted him after the whole Winter Soldier thing was not a really long one.

“I don’t mind… but wouldn’t it be better to take Steve instead of me?”

“You look like you could use getting out of here a bit.”

“Come on Buck, you haven’t been out of the tower in weeks apart from our morning jogs!”

Bucky sighs but nods his head after a bit.

“I’ll go with you.”

“Great. Wear something that you don’t mind throwing away afterwards, this will be messy.”

“I hope you don’t mind the smell…”

As soon as you were far enough away from the tower you decided that you should use the scent-blocking mixture. Rather sooner than later.

You burnt some saffron, skunk cabbage and trillium in a somewhat hidden back-alley and waited for the fire to burn down.

“Sorry that we had to do the fire my stash on the ashes was low, it wouldn’t have been enough for the two of us.”

“It’s alright.”

Once the fire had burned down completely you collected some of the ashes on your hands and dust your clothes with them. Bucky copies your action on himself. After both of you are done you quickly gather the rest of the ashes and stash them away in a glass that you put into your trunk.

The two of you drive off to an area of mostly abandoned warehouses.

You go back to your trunk and hand him a machete and take out a few syringes.

“This is dead man’s blood. Like I said before it incapacitates them for a bit so use it if you are in a bind.” He nods and takes the syringes from you.

“How long have you been doing this already?”

“I started learning when I was 7. My parents… I don’t remember much about them but Bobby told me that they were killed by demons before he could stop them. I had no other living relatives so he took me in and showed me the ropes. Bobby was a good father to me.”

You manage to give him a small smile.

“I’m… sorry about that.”

“No need for that, it’s alright. Come on let’s find them while it’s still bright. That way they can’t just run away.”

He nods and the two of you start searching through the warehouses together.

It actually seemed like you found the right one merely two hours later. There was still enough light outside that the vampires could not just flee outside without having to deal with the pain the sun would bring.

You cursed as you saw from the outside that almost all the windows were covered up.

“They live here… it could be quite a lot of them inside and the whole warehouse is a lot of ground to cover…”

“We should separate as soon as we get inside.” He suggests to you. You look at him for a moment and stay silent.

“Are you sure that you can handle it?”

“We don’t have much of a choice do we? If we call for backup it will be dark by the time they get here and they wouldn’t have their scent covered like we do. If we go and get our backup covered and come back some of them could already have left to hunt. Don’t worry about me.”

“You’re right. Okay let’s do this. If we are silent enough we could get them sleeping…”

You really hoped that luck would be on your side with that. Taking out your machete you crept up to the door and opened it as silently as possible. A glance inside revealed a long hallway with a lot of doors to both sides.

You signaled Bucky that you would take the right side while he should take the left. He gave you a short nod as an answer and started to creep forward to the next door on the left without making any noise whatsoever. You sneaked inside as well, still silent but not as noiseless as Bucky had managed.

The two of you opened your doors at the same time and crept inside.

It seemed like you had hit the jackpot already. There were at least 4 vampires sleeping within the room, some of them looked to be barely 21, but you knew that you could not save them now.

The first attack would have all of them awake so you took a few fast steps to the first one and separated his head from his body as cleanly as possible. The resulting clank of the machete on the ground and the smell of blood woke up the others who attacked you right away. If there were this many young ones this was most likely a bigger nest.

A few minutes of fighting later the other three were taken down as well without the use of any dead man’s blood.

You went back into the hallway and sprinted to the next door on the right side. The sound of fighting rang from an open door on the left but you had no time to look after Bucky because the second you opened the next door you were attacked again by two stronger vampires. It seemed like the farther you got down the hall the stronger the vampires got.

When you went to the next door you saw that Bucky was already almost all the way down the hall. You tried to hurry up to catch up to him. Luckily there were not that many vampires left, most had already left their rooms to join the fighting.

Bucky seemed to kill them a lot faster than you ever could but you became somewhat worried when you still fought against an old vampire. There were no more fighting sounds coming from the rest of the warehouse but Bucky was not coming to help you.

It took a syringe of dead man’s blood and a well-aimed kick to the nuts to get enough time to behead him.

You were exhausted after all the fighting but you still had to check on Bucky.

After you took a deep calming breath you readied your last syringe. Immediately after you crept back into the hallway to check the rooms Bucky had cleaned. Up to the last one you could only find headless bodies and detached heads lying around.

The last room was not as empty though. What you found inside shocked you.

There was a female vampire standing over Bucky. He was lying on the ground in front of her with blood around his mouth.

“What did you do you bitch?!”

She turned around to you.

“Another one?! I thought he was the only one!” She screamed at you. She looked through the door behind you were she saw the corpse of your latest victim. She let out a high piercing wail at the sight.

“You killed him!!”

She charged at you and threw you against the wall where she pinned you by pressing your shoulders against the wall forcefully. Her fangs slid down right in front of you and only seconds before she could rip your throat out you rammed the syringe into her side and pressed the plunger down freezing her. She dropped you to the floor and you managed to make her fall by kicking her legs with everything you had while she wailed in pain.

You shot back up and cut off her head with one swift move before dropping the machete, running over to Bucky and dropping to your knees next to him.

“James? Can you hear me?”

He groaned quietly but nodded.

“Bright… too bright…” he mumbled to himself, keeping his eyes closed tightly.

“Did you drink her blood? Did she force you to drink anything else?” you ask worriedly.

“Only hers…”

You sigh in relieve.

“Don’t worry James. I’ll get you back to normal. You just need to stay strong for me okay? You need to resist. If you drink any human blood I can’t help you anymore…”

You close your eyes for a second and pray to Castiel. ‘Cas, if you can hear me… please, I need your help!’

Only seconds later you heard the sound of wings behind you.

“(y/n)? What happened?”

“She made him drink her blood… I need to cure him, can you get me the ingredients? Please Cas!”

The angel took a short look around the room and to the vampire before nodding his head and vanishing accompanied as always with the sound of his wings.

“Stay here for a moment James, I just need to run to the car. I’ll be back in a minute. Don’t leave.”

You jump up and run to your car to get a few new syringes which you used on the dead female vampire the second you came back into the room. After all, the blood of the vampire who had turned him was needed for the cure.

The moment you finished with the syringes you heard the flapping of Castiel’s wings behind you. He had a bag with him.

“Can you get us back to his room? In the Avenger tower? I can take care of him there.”

He nods and you help Bucky up who is trying to stand.

“Steve can’t see me like this…”

“It’s alright. I’ll take care of it. Nobody will see you like this apart from Cas and me. You just need to trust me okay? And keep your eyes closed, it’s better that way.”

He nods again while Castiel steps up to the two of you. If you had trusted him enough to have your back he could trust you with this.

“They saw me gathering everything. They have questions…”

“And I will answer them as soon as he is alright, I promise to call them. Just please help me Cas.”

You put the syringes into his bag for safekeeping.

“You may be a bit disoriented after this.” states Castiel more to Bucky than you before moving his fingers to both of your foreheads and teleporting you to Bucky’s room in the Avengers tower.

J.A.R.V.I.S. voice is the first thing that comes to you after the teleport.

“Miss (y/n). I am not able to identify the person next to you. Should I raise the alarm? Or call Dr. Banner? According to my scans Mister Barnes is not well.”

“Thanks but no to both J.A.R.V.I.S. Castiel is a friend of mine and I need his help to help James. Could you please tell me where Steve is right now?”

“Mister Rogers is currently within the gym. Do you wish for me to call him?”

You help Bucky to his bed while Castiel moves to prepare the cure for you.

“No, just notify me please if he should be on his way here. Does he know that we’re back?”

“He wished to be notified as soon as you returned. He is already on his way here.”

“Shit. Tell him that he can’t see James and don’t let him get to the floor! Please J.A.R.V.I.S.!”

“May I inquire about the reason for that request?”

“You heard everything I explained earlier right?”

“I did Miss (y/n).”

“James was turned and we are getting the cure ready for him. He doesn’t want Steve to see him like this!”

“I will heed your request miss (y/n).”

“Thank you.”

As soon as you were done talking and had closed the blinds Bucky’s eyes shot open and his new fangs slid down. He groaned at the pain but kept his gaze on the wounds you had gained during the fight.

Castiel did not miss his gaze and moved to heal you with a touch.

“Thank you…” Bucky groaned to Castiel while you moved to help the angel get the cure ready.

“Miss (y/n). I feel the need to notify you that Mister Rogers is not happy with your reason to keep him away from his friend and is currently trying to find another way by enlisting Mister Stark’s help.”

“Thanks for the info.”

You moved back to the bed while Castiel finalized the cure with the blood from the vampire who had turned Bucky and got a cup from the kitchen. He filled the cup with the red liquid while you were talking to Bucky.

“This is going to be painful but you’re going to be alright. After you drink this you will be sick. For a few days at the most and you’ll be human again. I’ll take care of you and you don’t have to see anyone until you are ready to.”

He squeezes your hand in thanks with his human one and sits up to receive the cure from Castiel who also brought a bucket with him.

“He will need it. Dean told me that he almost instantly threw up after drinking it.”

He hands Bucky the cup who downs the whole thing without hesitation. The instant he is done Castiel exchanges the cup in his hands for the bucket. Luckily he was fast enough because not even 5 seconds later Bucky began emptying his stomach into the bucket while you were rubbing his back, hoping to calm him down at least a bit.

“I cannot do anything more for him right now. Sam and Dean need my help on a case so I’ll need to return.”

You go around the bed and hug the angel.

“Thanks Cas. I promise to call as soon as James is well again. Say hello to the boys for me okay?”

“Of course. It was nice seeing you again. Will you be residing here for some time?”

“Guess so. Oh and please don’t tell them exactly where you brought me okay? I’ll tell them myself when I call.”

He nods again before leaving with a flutter of his wings. By now Bucky had laid back onto the bed.

“Who was that?”

“I’ll tell you about him in a bit okay? I just need to empty this and go talk to Steve for a moment. Don’t worry, I won’t let him in here until you want to see him.”

You smile at him before taking the bucket and emptying and cleaning it in the bathroom. You move back into the room with it and place it next to Bucky.

“How bad is the pain?” you ask him with a worried look on your face.

“Nothing I cannot handle.”

“Alright. I’ll go see Steve okay?”

He nods at you before closing his eyes and breathing deeply, trying to relax a bit.

You leave the room and close the door behind you.

“J.A.R.V.I.S. could you please tell me if he gets worse or anything? And where is Steve right now?” You walked to the elevator while talking to him.

“I will notify you of any changes. I also took the liberty to notify Mister Rogers that you were ready to speak with him. He and Mister Stark are waiting in the common room for you.”

“Thank you, J.A.R.V.I.S.”

“You’re quite welcome, Miss (y/n).”

This was the first time since the nest that you actually had the time to look at yourself in the reflective surface of the elevator. You had a lot of blood on you, luckily not much of it was your own, but you had looked worse before.

Your cuts had already healed thanks to Castiel and you managed to get your hair into a ponytail before the elevator opened.

You walked into the common room where Tony and Steve were already waiting for you. While Tony was sitting on a sofa, Steve was pacing through the whole room.

“There you are! Why won’t J.A.R.V.I.S. allow me to visit Buck? What happened? And how did you get back here so fast?!”

Steve looked like a worried mother and you knew that he would have to calm down first.

“I took care of your friend but I won’t tell you anything else until you calm down and sit!”

He glares at you for a moment until he decides that the easiest way to get the answers he wants is to follow your order for the moment.

“James is alright. He will be sick for a few days but I’ll take care of him. He cleaned up the vampire nest faster than any hunter I’ve ever seen before until he got to the last room where the leader was waiting for him. I don’t know how she managed to do it, there were too many so we had to separate, but she fed him her blood. She turned him. I got here so fast because I called on an Angel friend of mine and he gathered everything for the cure and teleported us here. We gave him the cure a few minutes ago, ask J.A.R.V.I.S. if you want to, he can attest for all of that. Like I said, he’ll be sick for a while but he’ll be okay.”

Steve sighs and looks up.

“J.A.R.V.I.S.?”

“Miss (y/n) told you the truth Mister Rogers. Mister Barnes did not wish for you to see him in his condition so I did not allow you access to his floor.”

“Of course he doesn’t want me to see him… He’s as stubborn as a mule… But you’ll take care of him?”

“I will. I also may have promised him that he doesn’t have to see you until he is ready to…”

“Alright. I will stay away but only if I get regular updates.”

“You’ll get them. Now I need to go back, so if you’ll excuse me.”

The last thing you hear while leaving is Tony:

“Told you she’d take care of him, Capsicle.”

You go back to Bucky’s room who managed to calm down.

“How bad was he?” he asks you, trying to sit up and groaning in pain at his try.

“I’ve had worse mothers who were worried for their children.” You smile at him while he laughs at your comment.

“That’s Steve for you.” You sit down on his bed next to him.

“He also promised not to come here until you want him to. So, how are you feeling?”

“How did you manage that? It hurts. But I think I’ve had worse…”

“I promised him regular updates in return. As soon as you get up you really need a shower.” You stay silent for a few seconds before a groan leaves your throat.

“So do I and my car with all my things is still at the warehouse. I’ll need to get that as soon as possible. You must have a high pain tolerance. From what I’ve heard Dean fainted a while after taking in the cure.”

“You can take a shower here and take some of my clothes. It’s better than staying in those.”

“Don’t mind if I do!” you laugh while you take out your cellphone after hearing it alerting you to a text message.

\- I took the liberty of returning your car to the parking lot in front of the tower before rejoining Sam and Dean. You’re welcome. I also checked the warehouse and there were no victims left alive. -

You quickly start to type out a reply.

\- Thank you soooo much for that. You are an angel! -

Before Bucky can ask you why you are having such a huge smile on your face you tell him yourself.

“Cas took the time to teleport my car to the parking lot before leaving!”

Bucky chuckles at that while you look at your phone after you got another message from Castiel.

\- I was a bit confused by that statement but Dean explained it to me. You’re welcome. -

“You still can’t go downstairs to get your clothes in bloody clothes. Take a shower, I’ll be alright while you are gone. Just take some of my clothes.”

“Thanks, James. I’ll do that.”

You go over to his closet and take out a simple black shirt and shorts that are clearly too big for you.

“Can I take those?”

As he nods as you, you hurry to take a shower. You only take as long as you need to clean yourself up and wash your hair with some of his shampoo. You leave your clothes in the bathroom, you could always burn them later. You take your belt and underwear and dress yourself in Bucky’s clothes. Without the belt you would have lost the shorts within a second and the shirt is at least a number to big but they are better than the bloody things lying on the bathroom floor.

“How bad is the pain? Think you can take a shower as well?” you ask him while you step into the room still drying your hair with a towel.

“I’ll manage.”

He sits up slowly and puts his feet on the ground. You are at his side instantly when he tries to stand up but his legs don’t want to carry his weight to support him.

“Uff, damn you’re heavier than you look… Come on, I’ll help you into the bathroom. You’re on your own in there though! I already took my shower.”

“Damn, does that mean I could have shared with you? Missed my chance…”

You stop walking and gape at him with a red face.

“Are you….? Did you just…?” you thought you lost your embarrassment back when you were around Sam and Dean but apparently you had found it again. Even Dean had never asked you to share a shower with him. That could have been due to the fact that Bobby threatened to cut his balls off if he ever tried anything with you though.

“Don’t worry I’m kidding!” he tells you once he is done laughing.

“Don’t do that…” you mutter, still embarrassed. “I’m not used to it.”

You manage to get him to the bathroom and leave before he can answer.

“I’ll just wait out here! If you need anything tell me and I’ll get Steve!” you shout through the door.

“Yeah some clothes would be nice!” he shouts back. You facepalm. Why hadn’t you thought of that yourself? You just grab the first things you can get your hands on in his wardrobe and go back to the door.

“…You still dressed?” you ask through the door again.

“I’m still decent enough.”

You open the door to give him his clothes just to come face to face with a shirtless Bucky. Damn, he really had some nice muscles. You tried not to stare and left his clothes next to the sink for him.

“Thanks, I’ll be out in a few.”

“I’ll just go downstairs and get my things.”

You close the door behind yourself again and hurry to the elevator. You call it and wait a moment for it to open and reveal….

Steve…

on his way down. Well fuck your live.

You got into the elevator next to him.

“(y/n).”

“Steve.”

“Those are Bucky’s.”

“Yes they are. Anything wrong with that?”

“No of course not.” He answers blushing slightly. “You are both adults and know what you are doing.”

“You did not just say that.” You give him an icy glare. “You did not just imply that I slept with James only a day after I met him for the first time and while he is in some serious pain.”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it like that! Tony said….” You interrupted him before he could go on with that.

“Of course Tony said something like that. Just ignore him. I’m just going downstairs to get my things and afterwards I’ll be taking care of your friend again. Nothing else.”

He gets out of the elevator first, still blushing, and you sigh when the doors close. No luck today.

You managed to get your clothes and get back to Bucky’s room before he was finished with his shower and set down your bag next to the wardrobe for now.

You sat back down on the bed until Bucky called for you.

“(y/n)?”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Could you help me back to the bed?” you can almost hear that he really doesn’t want to ask you to help him.

“Depends on if you’re dressed.”

You walk to the door and hear him chuckling again.

“Yes, I’m dressed.”

You open the door and support him again, grabbing onto his waist while he has his human arm around your shoulder. After you help him lay down you sit next to him again.

“Would you mind if I asked you something?”

“Can’t tell you until you ask.”

“What happened in the warehouse? You cut through them faster than any hunter I’ve ever seen. How did that bitch manage to feed you her blood? I mean I managed to kill her, it should have been easy for you.”

He stiffens at your question and looks away.

“I had… no, have problems with my memory. You know about me being the Winter Soldier before?”

“Yeah, Nick made me read your files before the dinner yesterday.”

“At least I don’t have to explain that. Sometimes memories come up. I can’t control when or what I see. I had a flashback in there when she was standing in front of me and I froze. It gave her enough time to force the blood down my throat. Told me I would make ‘a pretty addition’ to her nest.”

“You don’t need to be embarrassed because of that. Maybe I can even help you.”

“How could you help me?”

“Well not myself, but maybe Cas can help you. You saw how he healed all of my cuts in an instant. Maybe he can help you with your memories. But only when you’re okay again and I’m done playing nurse.”

You smiled at him and he gave you a bright smile in response.

“I think I would like that.”


End file.
